Ivy by any other name
by Kilppari
Summary: Pamela and Sam never had something you can call an ideal mother-daughter relationship. But after Sam found out her mom's past life as Poison Ivy, things have changed. Of course they still have their problems and fights but at least now they can have a civilized conversations every now and then. They still have a lot to learn though: From each other and the world around them.
1. Ivy by any other name

_Hello everyone! Kilppari here and now it's finally time to continue my career as fic writer and murderer of English language. Yay!  
I know that there has been a long break, but as you who read my first story "Dark secrets" know, I have had a very hectic spring and summer._

 _But what you have to know when you start read "Ivy by any other name":_

 _1\. This is sequel to the "Dark secrets" and time between its second last chapter and this one is roughly three months._

 _2\. They are now living year 2019, so time line of season two ended almost three years ago._

 _3\. I listened Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde musical while writing this. Especially "Confrontation" inspired me a lot. You know, you see ;)_

 _4\. Pam doesn't have dissociative identity disorder. Ivy is more like the little devil on her shoulder._

 _5\. I still don't speak English as my native language and neither I have beta-reader so forgive me all my grammal mistakes._

 _6\. Also, I don't own anything in this story. Well, maybe the idea but you know what I mean._

 _7\. Enjoy!_

* * *

 _What's in a name? That which we call a rose_

 _By any other name would smell as sweet._

 _-William Shakespeare_

"I will go now!" Her daughter's voice shouted from the greenhouse, where she had been watering plants and picking up her school lunch, almost immediately followed by loud bang of closing door, leaving Pamela to voice her own goodbyes to empty house.  
Sighing redhead lowered the plate which she had been washing and looked trough the window how familiar trio made their way down the street. Everything seemed to be normal: Samantha was once again arguing with young Mr. Foley about something that elder woman wasn't able to hear trough the glass, while the Fenton kid, who was for some unknown reason already wearing winter jacket and shivering as he had been cold, thing that Pamela quickly added to her ever growing list of the Fenton family's weirdness, followed them with a slightly bored expression.  
Pamela shook her head in disapproval and immersed the plate back to the soap water. Aside from soft chink and clanks of the breakfast dishes the house was quiet; Jeremy had left to some business meeting and Ida was playing bingo with her friends, or at least that what she had said and Pamela had learnt years ago not to trust her stories nor care about her wild natured mother-in-law's doings, so Pamela had the whole house to herself. Maybe she could call Mrs. Sanchez to early afternoon tea; the Hispanic woman was always so talkative and her problems were so trivial that she reminded, in a very weird way, Pamela of Harley. A very shallow and humourless Harley, but since she wasn't able to see her best friend more than once a year, the redhead had made do with a weak spare.  
While drying the clean places with towel, Pam let her mind wander to her best friend. Last time she had talked with her was a couple weeks ago when the crying clown had called her because of a yet another fight with "her Mr. J". Pamela had managed to persuade younger woman to go in some support center, but knowing Harley she had probably already caused some kind of fiasco in there and now on the run or maybe even in her cell in Arkham. Well at least Joker was apparently there too, in the solitary of course, so luckily to botanist's mental health, there was no need for Pamela to worry about her friend well being for while.

"Well, well, well... What we have here?" An echoing voice asked behind the kitchen window interrupting her thoughts. Pamela turned her head towards the sudden voice, meeting to her great surprise two glowing red eyes that belonged to the weirdest looking ghost that she had ever saw. Its head and the most like the rest of its body too, Pamela couldn't be sure because of its huge size, was made of thick green vines and decorated with black spices that stick out top of its crown like those iroquois that she had seen some gang members use back in Gotham. As weird contrast from the ghost plant-humanoid like appearance, its mouth resembled a green bird's beak that was full of needle sharp teeth. Its gaze though was the reason that made Pam to drop her place, causing it to break to multiple pieces. The ghost's eyes were full of greed, lust and pure bestiality... It was the same gaze that she had sometimes witnessed from her own reflection when she had still been lost. It was the gaze of the madman.

"What an interesting meat creature." the plant ghost muttered in marvel like a small child with a new toy and raised its darker green hand to crush the glass that separated her from it.

"S-stay away!" Pam warned it and started to withdraw to avoid her pursuers touch. But the ghost didn't seem to hear her or care and reached even closer, not leaving Pamela another choice but rely to her powers. "I said stay away!" she cried and with a smooth flick of the wrist the ghost's hand unravelled to bile of harmless lianas.

"Amazing" The ghost sighed, its unnatural voice full of wonder, and without even blinking its eyes the ghost pulled its no useless hand front of its face to study the damage that she had caused. "A child of the nature that looks like a flesh webber..." Slowly the vines on the ghost arm tied back to the shape of hand and it turned its gleaming eyes back to her. "Tell me my dear child, what are you doing middle of this polluted world?"

"I'm not what you think me to be." Pamela told it, trying frantically to seek way to escape. Even though she belonged to that majority of Amity Park's adults that had a huge dislike towards ghosts and the Fentons, especially the Fentons, her past had taught her to be ready to anything so after ghosts had started to attack her home town almost daily, the former villainess had begun to study these new kind of spirits. Not as much as her daughter of course, just enough to know what expect in this kind of situations and recognize some of their obsessions. And what come to this particular ghost; it was clearly something nature and/or plant related, something that made the situation even more dangerous to her.

"Is that so?" The ghost raised one of it long eyebrows "Well, we shall see that soon."

"What do you- AH!" Pamela cried out of the pain when she felt sudden pain on her neck. While she had been concentrated to the ghost front of her, the single vine had approached her from behind, easily getting her under its control before she had time to reach, making the red head mentally curse her own carelessness.

"Hmmmm..." The ghost hummed and tilted its head as if it had heard something interesting while Pamela collapsed to her knees, unable to control her own body anymore. "So _you_ are the one I have heard so much from my children: the beautiful personification of the Mother Nature herself who used to protect them from the mankind's evilness: Poison Ivy." The loving way how the ghost spelled her formed name made chills run down her spine. "Why did you betray our children?"

Pamela would have liked to keep her mouth shut, but the same power that had made her lost the control of her body made her also answer to this monster's question. "I already had a child who needed me more." She hissed trough her teeth glaring the disgusting creature that had guts to act as if she was its long lost lover.

"Ah, yes. That female" The ghost chuckled darkly and raised its hand again to stroke her face gently "You have taught her well, my dear Ivy. Her love towards the nature is almost as passionate as yours. But don't worry my love; with my help, it will be just enough to safe her. All I ask in return is that you come with me and forget your life among these meat creatures so we can create a better world to all our children under my rule. And you, my beautiful Ivy, I will be my queen."

"I can't" Pamela moaned, trying weakly fight against her capturer's control. "I promised my husband that I wouldn't fall again... And I never break my promises."

"So you want rather be a traitor?!" The ghost hissed angrily. "You want to let our children die!? Can't you hear how they scream? How they are begging our help? Can't you hear how happy they are now when I'm here to safe them?"

Slowly formed villainess raised her head to meet its glowing eyes. "Yes, I hear them. All the time. But as much as I hate it, I have realised that I can't protect them from everything. Plants die every day, not only in the hands of the man, but the nature herself kills them too. Yes, I used to be insane enough to try stop that from happening but there was always someone who would come to stop _me_. And that is what will happen to _you_ too."

Growing furiously the ghost took its hand away and forced Pamela to stand. "Very well, _Pam_." It now spitted her name like it had been poisonous, which suited her much better. "You might not be willing to help me as my queen, but you will help me as a slave. And when your weak body can't stand the work anymore, I'm sure that _my_ children will be happy to use a traitor like you as their nutrition." Its eyes widened suddenly as an idea popped to its mind and then smirked cruelly to her; causing Pamela's to miss a beat out of the terror. "But I'm sure that daughter of yours will be more willing to follow me. After all, every garden needs its caretaker." Laughing the ghost left, leaving Pamela alone in her darkening mind to scream and fight against the enemy who had already won.

* * *

"Look what you have done Pam." Sweet voice suddenly whispered in her ear causing her eyes, that the woman hasn't even realised being closed, to snap open to search the source of this new voice. Blinking a couple times to make sure that she wasn't dreaming and the beautiful jungle around her was truly there, Pamela rose clumsily from the moss carpet that she had been laying. "You could just take that hand and we would finally fulfil our dream from the New Eden."

"That is what you wanted." Pamela snapped back and, when she finally localized her companion, turned to face the green skinned female who was sitting on the branch of the one of the huge trees that were growing around them.

Amused woman only laughed to those words. "Oh, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela... Always so naive and narrow-minded. Why can't you just accept that I'm closer real you than that snobby house wife whose role you have adopted. My dreams are yours too, darling."

Crossing her hands Pamela continued to glare the other red head above her. "Neither had you become any humbler. No wonder that Batman was always able to win you so easily."

"Don't you dare mention that murderer's name." She snarled out of the sudden rage causing the plants around the move restlessly. Pamela though just rolled her eyes to her companion's aggression and turned her back to her.

"Where are we anyway?" She asked with bored tone while studying huge violet flower that grew next to the small bond. She had got used to discussion like these in her dreams during her time in the mental hospital, though at first the other woman had been the more human one and never had they meet in surrounding like this.

"In side our head of course." The other answered with still a bit angry tone and dropped on the ground. "Because you were so bathetic weak, as always, you didn't let me any other choice but grate this small "sanctuary" to prevent Undergrowth for using our powers to his plans... This way we have time to rest so I can strike back when the time is ready."

Pamela glared the woman over her shoulder before asking coldly. "What makes you think that I will let you do it?"

This made the redhead snore with scorn. "As if _you_ could stop me."

"Do I have to remind you that I have already done that? All what you are is the end of a nightmare, an illusion. After I woke up you will be gone and I will be able to continue my life again."

"Hah! This is not dream my friend and it will never end. I'm here to stay, no matter what you may pretend and it's my legally that will flourish long after we are gone."

"Soon you will wither and my memory will hide you from the history! You cannot choose but do as I want!" Pamela hissed, finally losing her patience with the woman, and turned to face her again.

"You cannot rule me! I live deep inside you!" The green woman screamed furiously. "And we both know that I am the stronger one from two of us!"

"But I don't need you to survive, like you need me!" Pamela snarled back. "Besides, unlike you, I am wanted. I have friends and family who love me despite of the damage that you have done!"

"You don't need me to survive?!" The other shouted her voice full of disbelief and gibe. "Do I have recall you that it was me who saved your life after Woodrue's experiments? Or how I kept you alive over five years in that cruel, devious city!" Sly grin appeared to woman's lips when she leaned to whisper her ear. "And what comes to those your so called loved ones... If you truly believe that they will expect you as you are, then why you still haven't told Samantha about our past? Perhaps deep in that naive heart of yours you have realised the same truth that I have always known: that now and forever, no matter what you do, they will never be able to see difference between us: Pamela Manson and Poison Ivy."

"No! I won't let you ruin my life again!" Pamela shouted her eyes wide and tried to push the villainess away from her. "Even if it means that I have to kill myself. If I die _you_ will die too!"

"Oh, poor Pamela." Ivy giggled before she tapped the other woman's cheek gently like mothers do their children. "Do you really think that I will allow you to do something stubid like that? That weak mind of yours will break before you have had even time to decide how you would like end our life and then, then Pam, it will be _you_ who will die in _me_."

Out of disgust Pamela slammed other redheads hand off, her eyes no full of anger. "Damn you Ivy! Leave me be!"

"Can't you see? You are me!" Laughing Ivy asked turning Pamela quickly towards the bond, forcing her to look their identical reflections. "But" She added while the redhead was still staring in shock her now green skin, something that she had been able to keep hidden years. "Maybe we can reach a simple agreement."

"Why should I trust you?" Pamela asked emotionlessly. She was too tired to continue pointless arguing with her inner demon. Ivy might be a skilled at manipulating people, but she had been right when she had said that Pamela had always been weaker one.

"Because it's the only way to safe your family." Ivy answered with identical tone. Pamela turned to face the woman who stared back serious with expression casing Pamela to raise her eye brow out of suspicious. It was well known fact that Poison Ivy was emotionally unstable but such huge changes were unusual even from her.

"What are you suggesting?"

"Five minutes." She answered shortly "That's all I'm asking. After that you will get back in control and I won't bother you anymore."

"How can I be sure that you keep your word?"

Ivy answered this with small forced smile. "Didn't you tell Undergrowth just moment ago that we never break our promises?"

"Yes, but..."

"But what Pam? Don't deny that you want to safe your daughter as much as I want to protect my babies from that disgusting ghost's slavery. He might call them his children, but he is a terrible father."

"I..." Pamela whispered with unsure voice, not sure if she should trust the villainess keeping her word, but she soon noticed that she might not had to do that decision just yet.

"What's happening?!" Poison Ivy shouted suddenly out of terror waking Pamela from her doubts and raise her head towards leafy ceiling that was currently falling in pieces, letting bright sunlight ooze in the gloom forest.

"Can't you see?" She asked from her, huge grin on her lips. "It's over now. Someone has managed to defeat it. Just like we promised."

"No!" Ivy cried furiously, trying helplessly block light by moving vines and leaves front of them. "I won't let you shut me away again! My babies need me! They need me!"

"I'm sorry Ivy." Pamela said quietly. Despite all that hatred that she felt towards this side of herself, realising that Ivy had once again lied to her hurt more than it should have. And still, for some unknown reason, she still felt sorry for her fate. "I truly am."

"It's not over yet Isley!" Red head screamed still fighting against the lights that were eating the jungle around them. "You might have won this time, but remember my word, Pamela! Someday, in your weakest moment, you will break again and then _I_ will be the one who leaves from this jungle as a winner!" After those words the light around them become too bright for Pamela's eyes, forcing her to close them again and hide them behind her arms. Her ears though heard clearly the last furious scream of the disappearing illusion before the blissful darkness wrapped her conscious in its embrace.

* * *

Gasping of breath, wet from cold sweat, Pamela jerked up to the sitting position. It took her a moment from to fully realise that she had safely in her own bed, Jeremy sleeping calmly next to her, knowing nothing about the terror that his wife had just faced.

"It was only a dream." She whispered under her breath and climbed out the bed that, at the moment, felt too farm and oppressive to her frightened mind. "Just a nightmare." Making her way slowly towards their bedrooms large window, which had a beautiful view towards the snow covered garden that had fast become her great pride and joy after they had moved to the Amity Park, the woman tried her best to shake the remnants of the dream from her mind even though she knew very well that it had been much more than just a bad dream.  
It had been almost five months since the nature ghost, who had called himself Undergrowth, had attacked in Amity Park forcing its citizens under a control of the ghost's mind vines, destroying almost whole city in process so the plants that the ghost had called his own children would have enough room to grow and finally destroy all human life from the Earth. Luckily Danny Phantom, Amity Park's own ghostly vigilante, had managed to stop him before the ghost invasion had swelled to the world wide catastrophe but it still hadn't been enough to prevent Sam to find out Pamela's past life as Poison Ivy. The way how the truth had revealed to her daughter might not have been the best possible, after all the girl had literally caught her middle of the murder, failed murder of course and to her defence Batman had asked it, but they had managed to work past those problems and now their mother-daughter relationship was closer than Pamela had ever dared to dream.  
However, there were still some things that she was hiding from her daughter, husband, even from her best friends... Namely her conservation with Undergrowth and how close she had been to fall back to the life that she had managed to escape only eight years earlier.

Leaning her forehead against a cool glass, Pam let her eyes close once again and let herself enjoy the quietness of the sleeping city. Maybe they would be lucky tonight and it would be one of those rare nights when they would be spared from any kind of ghost attacks. But even if that would happen, she wouldn't be spared neither from the ghost of her past nor the echo of Ivy warning. These thoughts made the red head smile shortly the irony that the period of her life that been even shorter than the time she had spent here in Amity Park was still able to effect her so strongly.

"Is everything alright?" Jeremy's sleepy voice asked behind her. During some point of her inner meditation the man had woken up and moved to beside his wife now tying his hands around her waist. She really needed to start pay more attention to her surrounding or she would end up grow daisies before Sam would graduate from high school. Pamela tried to give her husband a calming smile and pressed small kiss on his cheek. "It was just a dream. I'm sorry if I woke you up."

"It's okay." He told her gently and moved his gaze to look garden behind the window. "The moon is pretty bright tonight anyway. Although the way how it creates shadow on the snow makes everything look quite... magical."

Pam just hummed as agreement and leaned her back closer against her husband's chest.  
After the time that felt like the eternity Jeremy let go from her. "Let's go back to the bed. We still have to wake up early if want to caught our flight to Gotham."

"You're right. As always." She told him, causing the man flash her amused grin before he leaded her back under the blankets, but not before Pamela had made a last glance towards the window that showed her reflection.

The reflection that still had green skin even though the hand in her husband's hand was white.

* * *

 _I will try update this story once a month. If "Dark secrets" taught something, it's that writing over two thousand words in English every second week is a quite big job... At leats to me it is. Though there might be a longer break between this chapter and the second one because I'm going to move to a city that is over 400 kilometers from my home town to study biochemistry. It wasn't my first choise but at least now I will have a change to fulfil my long time dream and finally become real superpowered villain! Muhahahaaa!  
Mmm... Yeah... Just ingnore the last one... _

_But about the future. This story will have about nine to ten chapters, there might be more but that is how many plot sketch I have right now in my notebook, and after that I'm planing to write"re-write story" about Dani Phantom as member of the Team. It will be good practice, but will also give me opportunity to play with my personal theories, before my ultimate goal: completely AU story, with hopefully unique plot and the length of which corresponds to the average novel. But that will most likely take at least a couple years before you will see that one :/  
_

 _But thank you for reading and hopefully we will see (meet? read?) soon!_

 _Love  
Kilppari_

 _P.S. I won't mind if you want sent any reviews. :)_


	2. Bat, cat and brat

_Howdy everybody!_

 _I have some very good news for you. I have now beta so you don't have to read any longer my error rich text! Yay! (Expect in these author notes, of course)_

 _So thank you very much to my beta jaguarspot for your time._

 _And to everyone else: Enjoy_

 _Extra note: Author has nothing against rappers, goths or any other kind of human group or subculture. All negative comments are there just to make Damian to look even more like the brat that we all love._

* * *

 _Where flower blooms, so does hope_

 _-Lady Bird Johnson_

The Gotham's Royal Hotel was one of the East Coast's most well-known and most expensive hotels. Though, the first one was mostly because of the almost once a year villain attacks, but the owner of the hotel didn't let this simple fact disturb him. As long as there were enough rich people with too much money and stupid enough to live or visit a city like Gotham, he would be able to sleep at night with ease.

But to Sam, it was the most amazing hotel that she had ever visited. And the hotel's clearly gothic interior style had nothing to with that.

Well, maybe a little.

Still, even though she enjoyed all those luxurious meals, expensive amenities and everything else that the Royal Hotel offered to its customers, spending two whole days inside four walls, her parents as her only companion, was slowly driving her crazy.

Yes, she understood better than well their fear towards Gotham's very own "Dark Knight", Sam had developed a quite huge dislike towards the bat themed hero after she had learned what had truly happened between him and her mother, and Pamela's old colleagues, but Selina had also promised them to make sure that there wouldn't be any problems during their visit so the two adults wariness had started to feel a bit exaggerated. And it hadn't actually raised her mood at all, when her mom had decided that it was necessary to them to start get ready three hours before that stupid Valentine's Day gala had even started.

"Why do we have to curl my hair again?" Sam asked letting out an annoyed sight while her mother continued humming to do her daughter's hair. Both women were currently in their hotel room's huge bathroom, their makeup done, still only wearing hotel's white bathrobes while Pamela's own red locks were already styled to a simple but elegant banana bun.

"Sammy dear. This is the rich elite's gala, _Gotham's_ rich elite's gale." She explained her calmly and released yet another dark curl from the hold of the iron. "To them it's almost like a crime to come their parties looking like your everyday self or otherwise average."

Sam just snorted to that, showing how ridiculous the idea was to her. "And we couldn't just put them on the pigtails because?"

"You are almost sixteen-year-old, Sam." She reminded her, her voice full of smile because of the teenager's irritation. "Aren't those a bit too childish to a young lady like you?"

"Since when doll curls stopped being childish?" The girl asked and started to tug one lose curl that had fallen in front of her left eye.

"They have never been if they are done right." Her mother pointed out and caught the lock from Sam's fingers before adjusting it back to its place behind her ear. "But you have also to carry them right."

Rolling her eyes, the goth crossed her arms but stayed silent, realising that there clearly wasn't any way to change her mother's mind. Pamela though still wanted to talk with her, so while she continued her work with the girl's hair, she started to question her if she remembered all the rules that she had told her earlier that week, which of course made Sam let out yet another annoyed sight.

"Be polite. Look happy. Ignore everything that annoys you. Smile. Anything else?"

"Act as modestly as possible around Mr. Wayne's wards. The local gossip magazines love to create romances from nothing."

"Even with Grayson and Todd" She asked and shuddered in disgust. "Seriously, they both are at least five years older than me."

Her words made Pamela raise her brown teasingly. "So you don't have anything against it if they start talk about you and young Mr. Drake?"

"Tt. In your dreams." She shot back. "Despite, isn't he already dating someone?"

"That is what magazines say." Red head admitted and winked at her trough the mirror. "But they also love drama and what is better drama than a love triangle. And who knows, maybe you will charm him with your eyes when you two meet. Just like your father did to me…." The older woman let out dreamy sigh forgetting for the moment where she was, making Sam to grimace when disturbing images about her parents appeared in her mind. When Pamela finally snapped out from her pink dreams, she quickly finished Sam's hair and sprayed a bit of hairspray on them before giving her daughter a pat on shoulders.

"You are almost ready for your first Gotham gala Sammy-kins. Let just put that lovely new dress on, and then we will go."

"Finally!" Sam breathed in relief as she jumped off from the stool she had been sitting and walked quickly out of the open door to the bedroom before her mom would start to fix some micro defects, where her dress was already waiting for her at the top of the bed. It was a simple, deep violet one-shoulder Greek-style dress with silver ribbon that travelled around her waist. Not exactly the dress of her dreams but it was the only one that both mother and daughter had accepted, a compromise, and Pam had also let Sam choose any shoes she liked, black heels with spikes on them and metal sole, since no one would see them under the dress' long hem.

"So," Sam started carefully to voice the question that had bothered her whole day while she tried to slip into her dress without ruining her hair or makeup, there was no way that she was going to sit another two and half hours because of them. "Is Harley going to be there too?"

The older woman let out a frustrated sigh, somehow already in her own form-fitting vine red dress with long sleeves and v neck, when the harlequin villainess was mentioned. "Unfortunately no. Apparently Joker is again well enough to be back in the game so they decided to cause a of bit havoc in downtown a couple days ago. Lucky to her, they managed to disappear before Batman arrived, but it also means that now they will most likely lie low for a while." The red head had sat down on the bed during her explanation, and was now butting her heels on. "On the other hand, it's probably better this way. Harley is a bit too…. energetic for parties like this and her face is still quite well known among the civilians. Especially Gotham's elite, or their bodyguards actually, have taken good care to memorise all city's criminals and villain's faces, so they will know who to avoid."

Her mother last words made Sam turn her head with a worried look in her eyes when she realised what that would mean to ex-villainess. "What about you mom? Are you sure that they won't recognise you too?"

Mrs. Manson just snorted to that in a very un-lady like manner and moved behind her daughter to help her with her dress' zipper. "Don't worry Sammy dear. No one has seen Poison Ivy in over eight years and most of them have most likely forgotten that I even exist. And you can't even imagine how well a change of your skin colour can bluff even those so called smart people. Besides, remember unlike Harleen, I still lived in Seattle with you when I got my powers and didn't arrive here until after the…" Snapping her mouth shut, the woman fall silent as if she had almost said something that she shouldn't have and when Sam turned again to look at her she noticed how she had lowered her gaze on the floor. "After the crash…" Pamela managed finally finished the sentence, her voice coming out only as tearful whisper.

"Oh…" There really wasn't any other way how Sam could have answered to that. She still remembered clearly how one evening, soon after Sam had found out about her mother's past, her whole family had gathered to their living room to explain their youngest what had truly happened during those years that Pamela had supposedly spent in the amazon. They had also told her about the car crash that had happened less than week after her mother had got out from the hospital where Woodrue's experiments had sent her. The young woman had lost control on her newfound powers in the moving car, almost killing her husband and Sam, who, at the time, had been just a toddler and therefore hadn't any kind of memories from the accident: just several faint scars that were hidden under her hair and that Sam would have never even known about unless she hadn't shaved half of her head bald when she had still been a rebellious twelve year old. To Pamela though, it had been the last straw that had broken her already fragile remnants of sanity turning her to the woman who the world had learnt to know as Poison Ivy.

To Sam's luck she didn't had to say anything as the knock came from their room's door soon followed by her dad's slightly annoyed voice. "Are you two going to be ready soon? I understand that you women need your time, but the party is going to start in any minute now."

"Coming love~" Pamela called back smiling widely, totally creeping Sam out with how fast and completely she managed to forget, or hide, it was impossible to know, the depression that had overpowered her just a moment ago. While Sam too was trying to adopt a more neutral expression, the older woman almost glided to the door and opened it revealing her blonde husband who was already wearing his suit and bowtie with identical colour as her dress.

"I'm sorry that you needed to wait so long." The redhead apologized genuinely as she gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "But don't worry. We can leave immediately after Sammy has put her shoes on."

"Finally!" Both father and daughter cried out of relief, the later quickly picking up the black and silver heels from the floor and slipping her feet into them while Pam tried her best not at laugh to them.

"I'm ready." She announced with face happy tone. "So can we go now?"

"Just a second." Jeremy asked suddenly and took, to Sam's great horror, a small camera from his pocket and snapped a picture of her before the girl had time to protest. "Oh look at you, what a beautiful sight you are to these old eyes."

"I know." Pamela sighed and hugged his arm tightly, sounding as if she was going to cry again. "My little flower in her full bloom."

The teenager just rolled her eyes to that and marched past them to the hallway so she wouldn't have to listen their babble any longer.

"Remember the rules Sammy-kins." Her mother called to her, also moving out of the room.

"Yeah, yeah, I know... Conceal, don't feel."

"Samantha! I'm serious."

"So am I!" She shouted back over her shoulder before turning over the corner, this way ending their short conservation, but she was still able to hear her dad's soft chuckle when he started to lead his now pissed wife after their almost as annoyed daughter.

* * *

When the family of three finally arrived in front of one of the Royal Hotel's many ballrooms, they were greeted by the sight of Selina greeting numerous guest, and an impressive looking man in his late 30s, on her side who couldn't be any other than Bruce Wayne himself.

"Pammy! You came!" Selina laughed happily when she caught a glimpse of her long-time friend.

"Of course, Kitty." The redhead giggled and leaned to hug her warmly "Someone had to come to make sure that you weren't going to do the same mistake as Harley did with that Elliot guy."

"Oh, don't worry. This one is the real one." Former cat-burglar purred slyly and gave her confused fiancé a seductive look before her eyes shot on Sam.

"Samantha darling! It's so good to see you. How have you been?" She greeted the already awkward teen with a thigh hug.

"Nice to see you too, Aunt Selina." She answered trough her forced smile, already disliking woman's bubbly socialite woman act that was too much like her mom's. On the corner of her eye, the goth noticed how said woman had moved in front of the black haired man who was greeting her with a classic kiss on her, gloved, hand.

"It's nice to finally meet you Mrs. Manson." He told her with a charming smile on his lips, clearly showing Sam why he was so liked among the women. "She has been talking about you so much that I feel like we had met before."

The red head let out a little flattered and foxy chuckle when she pulled her hand off from his. "But Mr. Wayne, we do have met before."

"Brandon?"

Snorting slightly, Selina released Sam from her grip and leaned to whisper in his ear something that the girl wasn't able to hear clearly, making the man's eyes wide large as the plates.

"Oh…" Was only thing that he managed to say, but something about his act didn't felt right. Sam didn't have much more time to think about it as her father had already moved to shake their host's hand, huge smile on his lips.

"Welcome to our ever growing club, Mr. Wayne. And don't worry, you will eventually get used to this kind of situations." The slightly younger man was clearly pleased to finally be able to speak with someone else who was in a relationship with a woman with a not-so-clean past. The blonde's cheerful attitude seemed to snap the billionaire out of his surprise and joined his smile.

"I truly hope so." He laughed causing the two older women to exchange knowing looks before they too started giggle like two teen girls with a secret. This made the man clear his throat, he was most likely embarrassed by their laugh, and turned to look the young girl next to her parents.

"And you are Samantha, right? You seem to be around Tim's age. Too bad that he had some school project to finish and couldn't come."

"Just Sam." She corrected while answering his handshake, feeling how her cheeks started to burn a bit when she remembered her earlier conservation about the man's ward.

"Damian and Dick though are already somewhere inside." He hinted not so subtly "They do know better than I what it's like to being thrown in this madhouse. I'm sure that they are more than willing to help you through this evening if you want to."

"I will remember that." She smiled him a little, even though inside she grimaced at the thought of having to spend her evening with either a hyperactive 20-something year old ladies man or a soon eleven year old spoiled brat. Or at least that was what she had heard them to be…

Selina cleared her throat loudly and gave her fiancé a warning look before she turned again to look at her friend and her family. "I hate to be the one who ruins this moment, but I think it's time to let you three go enjoy your evening. There is a small buffet next to the windows that you can freely use and the program will start around nine o'clock."

"Thank you Sel." Pam said while taking the hand that Jeremy was offering to her. "We will see you two later then."

"Of course." The dark haired lady promised and smirked a bit. "I surely will need someone _sane_ to talk to, or I will totally go nuts with these snobs."

Sam rolled her eyes when both adult women started to chuckle again to their, oh so clever, joke. Fortunately they moved to the ballroom soon after that, where they were met by the sight of dozens well-dressed people that had arrived before them and were currently talking in small groups around the room. Not wanting to spend the whole gala with her parents either, the goth slipped out of their company as soon as Pamela's eye avoided and started to make her way towards the buffet that clearly wasn't something that Sam would have called small. There were at least twenty different salty little snacks, half a dozen muffin and cookie type of sweets and five different cakes. There was even a small bar were a lone waiter was serving any kind of drinks that were asked.

After managing to collect a bit of every vegan friendly food on her plate, she moved to search for a good shadowy hiding place where she would be able to avoid both her parents and all young men who had started to eye her like some kind of piece of meat, making her neck hair stand upright. Finally she found cover under the shade of some kind of bush that was shaped to look like a heart in the honour of the holiday that still gave her a pretty good view towards the room this way letting her see any possible threat, aka annoying snobs, approaching her before it would be too late.

Though Sam soon noticed that maybe her hiding place wasn't as perfect as she had hoped.

"Interesting shoes." A calm businessman type of voice noted next to her causing Sam to almost trop her plate out of shock and she turned to look the speaker only to surprise herself again when she realised he was just a little boy whose slightly tanned skin made her suspect that at least one of his parents had roots in the Middle East.

"Mmm… Thanks?" She answered unsure what to think about this kid with a face that was too serious and eyes too old for anyone his age and still a small voice inside her head was nagging her that she should know him from somewhere.

"I assume that they are one of those so called self-defence products that weak females like to use."

"Actually… These are just shoes."

"I see… Then what purpose do those spikes have?"

"They look cool?" Sam offered. Why he was so interested in her shoes? He didn't look like that type of person who liked to talk about clothes without good reason. And how had he even noticed them under her dress' hem?

"So you are part of the gang." He noted, not asked, as if that had been real fact.

"What? No! I'm a goth, not a criminal."

The kid raised his eyebrow suspiciously, but otherwise the emotionless look on his face didn't flick. "It does sounds like a name of a gang to me."

"It's subculture." She explained to the boy who was starting to really annoy her. "Usually most see us as freaks who only dress in black, read dark poetry, listen to dark music, worship Satan… You know, the usual stuff."

"So it's a cult then?" He now asked, clearly not knowing what she had meant, causing Sam finally lost her cool and groan loudly.

"No! It's more like…. A fashion style."

"Like those dim minded imbeciles who wear too big pants and believe that their talking in rhythm is singing?"

"Exactly!" The goth gave him face happy smile, inner her sighing in relief. "Though, they are part of rap culture, not goths."

"Interesting…" The boy muttered and moved to lean against the wall next to her, messaging that he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Sam cursed loudly inside her head, not really wanting to spent more time than necessary with this rude kid, but neither would she like to leave her hiding place because of him.

"Shouldn't you go back to your parents, or whoever is taking care of you, before they get worried?" She tried to hint to him but the boy only let out annoyed "tt" sound.

"Unlike you, I don't need a babysitter." Sam had no idea what he meant with that. "Besides, father knows very well where I am. It was him, after all, who asked me to accompany you."

Kid's last comment made realisation hit Sam on the face and she groaned once again out a loud, pressing her fingers against her eyes as she tried to keep her annoyance in check. "You are Mr. Wayne's son, aren't you."

"Took you longer than I expected." The kid, Damian, noted calmly, and maybe a bit smugly, and quickly stole a small cake from Sam's plate, causing the goth to glare at him murderously and move a bit closer towards the bush. "Maybe you aren't as smart as father thought."

"I don't spend my afternoons reading gossip magazines, unlike most women in here." Only enough to see that they were right about you being total brat, Sam added inside her head. "Why you don't go bother someone else? Like that Grayson guy. I'm sure he wouldn't mind spending more time with his little brother."

"Tt… Grayson is not my brother." Damian sneered again contemptuously and glared across the room towards an older black haired male who was talking with an exotic looking green eyed redhead in a bright pink dress that showed a bit too much skin for Sam's taste. "And as you can see, he is currently quite busy with his harlot."

Rolling her eyes, Sam took another bite from her carrot patty. "You clearly aren't a people person." She hummed after shallowing. "But seriously, would it kill you to talk a bit more nicely about others? You are sounding way worse than Paulina, and believe me, that is something that you don't want to be."

"Although…." She added as she looked at how the woman flirted shamelessly with her cavalier. "I have to admit that she really is acting a bit like a whore."

For a moment Sam imagined that she saw the kid's mouth twitch a bit to something smile-like, but she couldn't be sure as it turned back almost immediately to the emotionless mask. Maybe there still was hope with him. Those thoughts disappeared as fast as his smile though when the boy stole yet another snack, this time it was a mini grass bread, from her plate.

"Liking my garbage food?" She asked sarcastically, earning to her surprise another annoyed look, as if she had said something stupid.

"It is recyclable organic matter, not "garbage" as you put it."

"Impressive." The goth girl nodded her head surprised that a boy of Damian's age, or anyone else who wasn't one of her Ultra Recyclo-vegetarian friends, knew suck a term.

"Tt. I'm vegetarian. Of course I know what I'm eating woman."

"Easy kid." Sam chuckled good naturedly. Maybe this evening wouldn't be that big of a disappointment as she had feared. "We are in the same boat. I'm vegetarian too. Ultra Recyclo-vegetarian to be exact."

The boy turned to face his companion, an interested twinkle in his eyes. "I have never heard that term before."

"No wonder. It's an orientation that was born in Amity Park about a decade ago and hasn't speared that much outside our city yet." Sam told him and lowered her now empty plate on the edge of the pot while the young boy moved to take two champagne glasses from the waitress who was passing them, scaring the poor woman half to death doing so. She probably hadn't even noticed them standing in the shadow.

"Please, Miss Manson." He asked with that same charming voice that his father had used earlier that evening and offered the other glass to her. "Can you tell me more about this Ultra Recyclo-vegetarianism?"

"Sure." She smirked back and took the drink from his hand. Maybe she would learn to like this kid. Despite his rude behavior, Damian truly was his father's son. He clearly knew the ways to how to make most women forget his rude attitude with just a couple simple words and a smile. "My friends usually explain it by saying that I don't eat anything with face, but it isn't just that…"

* * *

Much later that evening, when all guest had returned to their homes or hotel rooms, a small group of three got into the black limousine that was waiting for them in front of the Royal Hotel.

"I hope you had a pleasant evening, Master Bruce." The British butler greeted them with his trademark calm voice behind the wheel while the middle-aged hero loosed his tie.

"As enjoyable as these kind of parties can ever be." Bruce told him tiredly. "How did Tim and Jason's patrol go? Nothing major I hope."

"A usual Thursday evening sir." Alfred assured him as he glanced towards the closed door. "I am assuming that Master Richard is not going to join us tonight."

"Oh, no." Selina chuckled, knowing look in her eyes. "He and Kori already left a couple hours ago. But they did promise to come the dinner tomorrow evening" She added when she noticed the older man's smile slump a little.

"Ah, thank you for informing me Miss Kyle." The old butler was clearly happy to hear that. He had missed his oldest "grandson" dearly after his move to California three years ago, but he had also taken a liking to his alien girlfriend during those few times when the young lovers had come to visit in the manor. Damian, on the other hand, wasn't as excited from the news and he didn't fear to show that.

"Great… Yet another night listening to that aliens annoying laugh." The current Boy Wonder growled while the butler started to drive out of the city. His father and future stepmother didn't seem to be disturbed by this though, so used they had come to the boys everlasting foul mood, and the rest of the ride continued in, rather, peaceful terms. It wasn't until they had returned their home and Selina had disappeared somewhere out of the two heroes sight, Alfred had gone to take the limousine to the garage, when Bruce turned to talk to his only blood son.

"So?" He asked with a serious face clearly expecting his Robin to tell him something.

"She was…. an interesting character." Damian answered choosing his words carefully. "Clearly spoiled and doesn't respect law nor politicians in any way. Also the way how she was moving showed that she has at least some kind of self-defense skills. But otherwise I couldn't see anything that could have inferred villainous actions…. Actually I think that her heritage and close relationship with Phantom would make her a possible worthy ally."

His father raised his brows to the boy's opinion, showing his suspiciousness towards the idea but made a note to consider it later.

"Let me guess." a low, dangerous voice snarled from the top of the vestibule's staircase, causing both males to wince, maybe not enough to even Superman nor Flash to notice it, but believe or not, they did. "You are talking about Samantha."

"She prefers Sam…" Damian pointed out, only his lifelong training first to become an assassin and then as Batman's partner prevented him from showing his nervousness, and fear but he wasn't going to admit that to anyone, under the furious cat lady's burning gaze.

"I told you to leave Pamela and her family alone Bruce, didn't I?" Selina hissed trough her teeth as she walked down the stairs, her eyes locked at the calm looking man, yet deep inside, like his son, his fiancée's anger made him shake in fear.

"Ivy's actions during our last meeting proved that she still isn't trustworthy." He told her with the same coolness that usually only Batman used. "It's only logical to make sure that her daughter hasn't been raised to follow her legacy. Especially with Samantha's possible meta status."

"Firstly." Catwoman glared at her fiancé and tapped his chest with her sharp, black painted nail. "Don't use that voice on me. Secondly, it was you who broke into her home and threatened her family without any good reason. And thirdly. Sam. Isn't. Meta." Selina finished her lecture hitting the taller man's chest during every time she said those last three words. "I'm sure that you can see it yourself from that DNA sample which you got from her glass."

"We will see that." The detective said glaring back into his long time lover's eyes, challenging her try to win their little battle. To Damian, this was finally the moment that he had looked for since the cat burglar's appearance: the perfect opportunity to escape before the dark haired woman would turn her attention towards him. It was good that he left because just when he managed to reach the top stair he heard her play the most feared, final card.

"Two weeks." The former thief finally whispered coldly, still not breaking their staring contest. "That is how long you are going to sleep on the couch this time."

* * *

 _Yes. In this universe, after Wally's "death" (aka getting stuck in speed force) Dick Grayson moved to Jump City, lived there for a while, met a weird bunch of superpowered teens/young adults and founded superhero group now know as the Titans. Later he fell in love with certain alien princess, who he will marry someday, and in far future they will have daughter named Mar'i. Sniff... I love happy endings._

 _And if you are interested in the Robin time line:  
Robin 1: Dick Grayson B:1996. Robin: 2006(after Aprill 1)-2012. Nightwing: 2012-. Current age:23  
Robin 2: Jason Todd B:1999. Robin: 2012-2014 (killed by the Joker). Red Hood:2017- (become "hero" again and publicly alive during autumn 2018). Current age:20  
Robin 3: Tim Drake B:2001 (Hey! He is as old as Jazz). Robin: Early 2015-early 2018. Red Robin: Early 2018-. Current age:18  
Robin 4: Damian Wayne B:2008. Robin:Early 2018-. Current age: 10, soon 11  
_

 _If any of you wants to see the whole time line of this au just tell me. I already have my notebook full of numbers and notes :P_


	3. It's chess, Daniel

_GOOOOOOD EVENING EVERYONE!_

 _Guess what day today is? That's right! The very first anniversary of this story series. Oh I can't believe it has already been a year since I got suddently a stupid desire to publish the first half of my two shot story... That ended up to be a way longer than I ever planed and hundred times more popular than I could even imagine.  
So thank you all. Especilly those who have been part of this since the beginning. And if it would be possible to sent hugs through the internet, I would definitely sent you all the biggest and warmest hug in the world. But since it's impossible I can only give you all a ghost hug. You can't feel it, but it's there. _

_Thank you to my beta jaguarspot and to NAVSO311 for helping me with finding a new name to Kaldur (because 25 year old man with name Aqua lad_ _would be just stupid) and the most interesting discussion that I have had in a very long time. And don't worry, the other idea you gave me will be used better in the next chapter._

 _And as alway._

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _Look deep into nature, and you then you will understand everything better_

 _-Albert Einstein_

The Disasteroid… That was the name mankind had given the asteroid that had almost destroyed their home planet. The week after astronomers had announced the upcoming crash had been one of the most terrifying in their history. Of course people had already walked through many wars, catastrophes, even alien invasions, but this time it had truly seemed that there was no hope left for them. Their weapons were useless against the asteroid and the planet's strongest heroes, who could have just pushed the space rock away from its course, had left on an off planet mission to the far away galaxy and there was no way they would be able to reach them on time. Even their last desperate act to save their lives, the ghost hybrid called Vlad Plasmius who had demanded 500 billion dollars and the tittle of Earth's ruler as payment for his work, had failed...

And they would have all died if there hadn't been one particular outcast hero from a small city called Amity Park: Danny Phantom. The ghost boy.

He and his human friend, a techno geek with too much free time, had explained the whole world their plan to use the ghosts' ability to turn the whole planet intangible so the asteroid could just travel through Earth without destroying it. The only problem had been that they wouldn't be able to do it alone. They needed everyone's help: heroes, villains, civilians… Every single country and kingdom, even Atlantis andThemyscira, had to do their part if they wanted to survive.

It was a ridiculous plan, suicidal even, not even mentioning that only a few had even believed in ghosts before Plasmius betrayal and all information they had about these creatures didn't show them in very good light. But if they had been desperate enough to give up their lands in the hands of a madman, they surely were desperate enough to trust the dead boy's word.

So in the following short four days a huge tower was built in the South Pole and lands were covered with the special made cables that would be able to direct the ghosts' energy to everywhere it was needed. It had been an expensive project, but for once no one cared about the money, and with the help of numerous metas, they managed to finish their task just in time.

And believe it or not, the Phantom's insane plan had worked. The Disasteroid went through Earth without any kind of problems and every single humanoid in Earth was finally able to breathe again. But, even though that day almost no one realised it, they hadn't only managed to save their home. Oh no, they had managed to create something even more important: the power of international teamwork. And maybe, just maybe, it was also the start for worldwide peace that humankind had dreamed of since the beginning of their race.

To Danny Phantom, though, it had been the day when he was finally accepted as a true hero. During the two following weeks after his plan had saved the world, there had been hundreds of celebrations in his honour. Almost every single leader of the countries of the world had sent their praises to him, Amity Park had even erected him a statue in front of their city hall, not even mentioning the long praising speech that Superman had given the young hero through TV from the Hall of Justice on behalf of the whole Justice League, after he had finally returned from his own space mission.

But to Danny, none of those things really mattered. To him, the greatest gift had come from his parents.

When he had finally returned home from the Pole, after a long discussion with various generals, ministers and heroes, his whole family had been waiting for him. His parents had told him how they had finally discovered his secret during the operation. Apparently his re-programmed robot look-a-like hadn't been good enough to distract them, but to be honest, it was only a miracle that it had even worked at all in the first place.

To Danny's great surprise, his parents had been neither angry nor disappointed, just a bit sad and embarrassed because they hadn't realised it sooner and their son hadn't trusted them enough to reveal his identity as a halfa. They had been proud of him, happy for him and the most important: they had accepted their son as he was: a freak, a menace, a hero... A ghost. And for the first time in a very, very long time, he was truly happy.

"Are you sure you want to do this on your own?" Danny asked his girlfriend, oh how he loved that word, as they walked hand on hand towards Sam's home. The fresh couple was just returning from their evening flight after watching the reveal of the Phantom's statue from the top of a near hill. It had also been Tucker's very first official ceremony as Amity Park's newest, and youngest, mayor. And since Danny hadn't wanted anyone or anything to steal that spotlight from his best friend, the two boys had agreed it would be the best if Danny would follow the ceremony from a distance and keep an eye out for any possible problems, even though, besides him and Sam, currently only Danny's family was aware of his double life. "I don't mind taking all their yelling."

Sam just gave a small laugh and shook her head. "Mom won't just yell at you when she finds out what we have been doing for the past three years Danny; she will brutally murder you. And probably dad too… I did told you that he has a gun, didn't I."

The halfa shuddered when the goth's words brought his last December's discussion with her mother back to his mind. He wouldn't say that he was afraid of Mrs. Manson, he had known the woman since he had been eight years old and, even through her obvious dislike towards him, the woman had never actually tried to hurt him. It was just that he had recently become a bit too aware of the fact she really was callable to kill someone if she wanted to.

"And what makes you think that they won't do anything to you?"

Sam gave Danny a pointed look. "Yeah, right. The worst thing that they can do is ground me for the rest of my life. Luckily, even if they would do that, I'm sure that a certain hero I know can always come to rescue me from my cruel fate."

"Unless your mom finds out how to grow Blood Blossoms." He half joked. After returning Infi-map to Frostbite the very first time, the trio had searched and read all possible information that they had been able to get on their hands about those flowers with anti-supernatural properties. All they had found though had been just a couple inaccurate descriptions, giving the teens hope that either the flowers had become extinct during last four centuries or they were so rare that modern civilization hadn't yet discovered them.

The girl snorted and hit playfully her boyfriend's arm. "As if you would let something like that stop you from trying."

"Hey! Those things really hurt, you know." The halfa defended himself. "If I ever see even one of those red and violet devils near your house, you will be your own, lady."

"Are you truly going to let me rot in my room till I become old and die just because you are afraid of some little plants?" Sam asked gasping dramatically, her face twisted by face hurt. "What happened to your hero complex?"

"It died with half of my humanity." The boy answered seriously. Danny and Sam had now stopped front of the goth's house, both staring at each other coldly, before Danny finally lost his cool and burst into laughter, Sam soon following his example.

"Seriously Danny. Those half death jokes of yours are stupid." Sam chuckled as she wiped a lose tear of laugh off her cheek.

"And still you keep laughing at them." The young hero pointed out smiling her widely.

"It's not your jokes I'm laughing at." She teased him back while unlocking her house's front door. "I'm laughing at you."

As Danny hissed out of pain of his wounded pride, the young couple moved inside the house and Sam started to lead him towards the living room where she knew her parents and grandma would be watching the news at this time of evening.

"Hi everyone." The girl greeted happily, which was the only thing she needed to get the full attention of her now suspicious family. Happy Sam was never a common thing inside these walls, which wasn't that surprising considering her dark nature, and was always a sight from upcoming problems.

"Hello Sam, Daniel." Jeremy spoke with a too calm voice while his wife glared suspiciously at the young man next to their daughter. "How was your evening?"

"Yes sweetie, how was it?" Pamela asked sweetly, causing hairs to stand up on Danny's neck. "We didn't see either of you in the revealing ceremony."

"Oh, we were watching it." Sam told them quickly. "We were just a bit further from the mass so we would be able to see Tucker better, you know. It was quite a big occasion to him after all."

"Yes it was…." The two adults said in unison while Ida was making her best not to laugh at their action nor at the two sweating teenager's faces. Unlike her son, she still remembered times when Jeremy had been the same age as they were now and how pale he had been after meeting his second girlfriend's parents the very first time. Oh those golden times….

Danny cleared his throat nervously before turning to look at Sam. "I think I should go now." He said awkwardly and pointed his thumb towards the door. "My curfew is soon, so….."

"Yeah…." She answered, a small blush forming on her cheeks while she started to play with the ring that Danny had given her earlier that evening. "Be safe."

"You too. And try to survive." The halfa gave her a weak smile, his eyes asking her one last time if she really was sure about the plan that they had formed earlier that week, and when she gave him only an affirmative answer, he let two bluish white rings travel across his body.

The looks on Sam's parents' faces truly were worth seeing, just like she had promised him. Her father just stared the halfa front of him, his eyes large as plates and his jaw hanging comically almost like it would hit the floor in any second. Mrs. Manson wore an almost identical expression as her husband, but unlike him, she had started to hyperventilate and slur some quiet words that didn't make any sense. But Ida's reaction, on the other hand, wasn't anything that Danny had expected. She hadn't gotten a heart attack like the ghost boy had feared, and to be honest, Tucker had been so sure about it that the boys had even made a bet about it (something that Danny really hoped that Sam would never find out). Instead the old lady was almost jumping on her chair, so excited she was, wearing a huge smile and clapping her hands like a hyper five ear old who had just been told that unicorns were real. Well at least he was now twenty bucks richer…

"Mmmm… Have a nice evening?" The halfa said and gave a timid wave to the staring adults as he gave one last glance towards his girlfriend, who gave him a small smile in return, before flying trough of the ceiling and all other floors above him to the outside world.

However, he couldn't bear himself to leave just yet. Not until he was sure that Sam would be okay on her own, and therefore he remained hovering invisibly above the trees of the Mansons' garden. He didn't have to wait even five minutes before the furious screech that rivalled any full powered banshee, and believe him his ears had experienced that before, was heard from the inside of the building.

"YOU HAVE BE DOING _WHAT_ FOR _HOW LONG_!"

Danny winced in sympathy and sudden pain that the loud scream had caused to his sensitive ears. Maybe Sam had been right and it truly was better if he stayed as far as possible from her parents for next couple days or weeks…

Wait! Had that tree just tried to hit him?!

Couple weeks it was. Definitely couple weeks. Or maybe even a whole month…

Shuddering a bit, the young hero started making his way towards his own home, giving a worried look over his shoulder every now and then, just hopping that Sam would really survive her mother's rage.

* * *

Danny hadn't managed to fly that far from the neighbourhood where Sam lived when his eyes caught a humanoid shaped shadow on the ground flying next to his own. As far as he could tell, it didn't belong to anyone he knew, but from its size and shape he was able to guess that whoever it was, the person was flying not that far above him. Letting his instincts control his actions, the halfa quickly turned himself once again invisible and speeded between two buildings where he then turned to study whether the action had any effect to the owner of the shadow.

"Oh c'mon!" An annoyed feminine voice cried out. From the distance Danny was, he was able to detect their clearly peachy skin and lack of any kind of ghostly aura, making Danny to believe, despite her ability to fly, the person was a one hundred percent alive. The ghost boy also noted the quite long blonde hair and red sweat pants and black top with golden design that was most likely some kind of symbol. He couldn't be sure though, since the person was spinning a lot while trying to locate where he had disappeared to.

When the boy's natural curiosity finally won over his suspiciousness, Danny slowly floated off from his hiding place and started to fly towards the blonde. It wasn't every day when metas (personally Danny saw himself more as a hybrid and Mrs. Manson used her own skills almost never) decided to show up in his city. And as Amity Park's official protector, it was naturally part of his job to make sure that they hadn't any funny ideas on their mind.

"Stupid ghosts and their stupid tricks…" The girl cursed under her breath as Danny approached behind her back, now seeing with ease her clearly feminine figure, still unable to get a better look on her shirt's symbol because of her endless moving.

"You know, it is kind of rude to berate others behind their back." Danny pointed out, feeling a bit smugly when he saw how the meta girl jumped higher in the air, showing him that he had managed to scare her out of her skin.

"Hah! Found you!" She grinned triumphantly after she had turned around and recognized the young hybrid who was currently staring her with a not so amused expression. Danny raised an eyebrow when the girl's new pose showed him what kind of symbol she was wearing, not bothering to correct her that technically it had been him who had found her. The symbol though, was one of those few ones that he actually knew, but something didn't feel right about it.

"Listen miss….. Whoever you are. I know that I'm not that good with superheroes, but even I am aware of the fact that Wonder Woman has black hair." And after another critical look he quickly added "Though I can't say that your cosplay has succeeded any other ways either."

Danny watched with satisfaction how the blonde's cheeks turned red out of the anger she tried poorly to hide. The halfa had learnt quickly in his early months as a hero that the angry and annoyed opponents were easier to defeat. Their anger made them sloppy, causing them to make mistakes they would never do otherwise, and it was one of the reasons why he liked to insult his enemies and the possible threats like the girl front of him so much.

"I'm not cosplaying anyone." The insulted girl snapped. "The name is Wonder Girl and since you have clearly been dead too long to know; I'm the partner of Wonder Woman."

Deciding not to bother commenting how stupid the word Girl sounded in someone her age, she looked as old as Jazz for Clockwork's sake, the boy let his posture relax a little, not because the blonde's new found partnership with one of the League's so called big guns had made him trust her more than a moment ago.  
No, the true reason behind his action was to act in the way _she_ expected him to act.  
After "the bat incident", as Tucker liked to call Batman's visit, the Team Phantom had decided to keep a better eye on not only Gotham's heroes and rogues but also others who lived close to Amity Park including the Hawks, the Flash and Shazam. And if Danny had learnt something during past eight months, it was that heroes, especially Leaguers, seemed to expect people to calm down at the very same moment when they arrived. They had the same kind of aura of authority as police officers and soldiers had but to Danny it felt… heavier, more demanding… As if it was them who controlled the world.  
And in a way, he believed, they did.

After noticing the change in the halfa's posture Wonder Girl too let her tensed muscles relax and flashed him a small, slightly awkward smile, but since she otherwise didn't show any sign leading to continue their conservation Danny decided to open his mouth and lift the cat on the table.

"Is there some particular reason why you suddenly decided to show up in my humble city or…"

"Oh, yeah I almost forgot." The older teenager let out an embarrassed laugh and rubbed the back of her head. "Our team leader wishes to meet you. He has some news and an offer that might interest you. My job was just to fly around and try to spot you. You are not exactly an easy person to find, you know."

Danny tilted his head suspiciously. "And your leader is?"

"Riptide." The girl smirked. "Though he used to be known as Aqualad. And let me guess: you haven't heard about either of them before, have you."

The ghost boy shot her an annoyed glare. The name Aqualad actually did ring some bells in his mind but he hadn't known that the Atlantean had changed his name. Well at least some sidekicks seemed to have enough sense to get rid of their childish titles when they became too old to pass as one.

The halfa hero sighed out loud and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He better get this thing over soon or he would be late for his curfew again. "Okay… Take me to your leader."

"Har har har" Wonder Girl laughed sarcastically as she spun gracefully around in the air and started to fly towards the park. "You're a real comedian."

"Hey! My friends appreciate my humour." Danny argued and speeded after the heroine. What was this? Insult the half dead boy's humour day or something?

"Undoubtedly." The blonde snorted then pressed a small earpiece that Danny hadn't noticed earlier to inform her friends about their soon arrival.

"How many of you exactly are here?" He asked as if in passing, trying his best to get some useful information out from the older superhero without making her suspicious.

"Beside me and the boss man? Just Superboy, Kid Flash and Robin."

Danny let out an impressed whistle. "Five against little old me? Should I be flattered or offended?"

"Naah…" Wonder Girl shrugged her shoulders. "KF came because Tides wanted someone to cover the ground, you seriously should consider getting some kind of contact line, and Supey is there only to keep the Demon's brat in check. Seriously, Batman made him tag along just because this would be "a good opportunity" to learn some social skills."

"What? The kid has a bad temper or something?" He asked innocently, already creating his own theories on why the hero of Gotham had sent his protégé, none of which sounded promising at all.

"Something like that. You will surely notice it yourself any moment now." She sniggered a bit and pointed towards one of the parks highest hills where four figures were already waiting for them next to some kind of, a quite large, red vehicle.

Two of the boys, a dark haired thug with a Superman t-shirt and a scrawny brunet in a too bright coloured costume, seemed to be around his age, while the closest one to Danny was clearly in his mid-twenties and the remaining hooded kid behind them all was barely on his teens.

"Greetings Phantom." The dark skinned Atlantean spoke to him, as the two flyers landed front of them, with a calm but friendly voice that brought a vague childhood memory back to the halfa's mind. He had been one of those three boys who had talked on TV almost ten years ago when all adults had suddenly disappeared for over five hours. If he remembered correctly some sort of curse had been behind it all, but of course his parents had blamed ghosts for the whole incident when everything had finally returned back to normal. It had actually been one of his scariest memories before the accident had made his life way more frightening than he could have even imagined back then. "And thank you for being willing to come meet us."

"Riptide, wasn't it?" He checked while answering the older man's firm hand shake. "I have to say that you awoke my curiosity when Miss Wonder here mentioned something about information you had that I would like to hear."

"Yes." The man agreed and signalled for the group's youngest member to move closer. The scowling boy did as he was told then pressed some buttons on his glove causing a picture of Vlad in the classic orange prison suit and an inhibitor collar on his neck appear on the small hologram screen.

"As you can see, the members of the League managed to capture Plasmius while returning to Earth from their mission." Riptide explained to him while young halfa's brain tried to comprehend what his eyes were seeing. "He is now under the custody of the government and has been locked in Belle Reve's prison where he will be waiting his trial and most likely also serve his sentence."

Danny blinked his eyes once, then a couple times more, just out of disbelief. His head felt weirdly light too, as if it would start floating any moment now.

"Vlad is in prison?" The ghost boy asked with a shocked laugh. "But why didn't he use his contacts to get out of this, or money, or, or claimed that he was overshadowed…. And the contract... "

"You know, it's a bit hard to play innocent when you have revealed your evil master plan live on international TV." Kid Flash laughed and ran in a yellow and red blur closer to them next to Wonder Girl, who just rolled her eyes at the younger boy's action.

"And about that contract." The boy of steel continued, him too smirking a little. "It unfortunately burned to ashes in the atmosphere when he was brought back to Earth."

The ghost boy shook his head, probably the world's stupidest grin on his face. "Wow… Just wow…" The man who had bullied, no molested, him and threatened his family, especially his dad, and friends lives for years was finally behind bars and would most likely spend the rest of his life there too. He couldn't wait to get back home so he could tell Dani about this. The girl would finally be safe and free from her constant fear of her creator coming to capture her and try once again to melt her back to a pile of ectoplasm.

"It is indeed an easing feeling to see your long time enemy defeated." The Atlantean said with an understanding smile.

"You have no idea." Danny told him. "Thank you. Seriously, thank you."

"No Phantom." Riptide said seriously and pressed his hand on the halfa's shoulder. "Thank _you_. Without your actions none of us would be standing here tonight. We have been protecting Earth and its people from both each other and invaders by ourselves for so long that we sometimes simply forget that they are completely competent to take care of themselves on their own."

"Which brings us to the other reason why we have come to seek you." The man continued and let his hand fell back to his side while Robin shut his screen down and returned to sulk on the background.

"Oh yeah. The offer." Danny remembered, his suspiciousness returning and the sudden growing grins on Wonder Girl and Kid Flash's faces didn't help the situation at all.

The Atlantean nodded. "Yes. The skills that you showed during the asteroid chaos have impressed the League and they have decided to offer you a place in the Team."

"The team?" The halfa asked, an amused smile tugging his lips. "Can you please be a bit more specific, because if you are talking about some sort superheroes' football team then I'm sorry to tell you that I'm terrible in all kind of sports."

"Hey! That's actually a good idea!" Now excited Kid Flash grinned and looked towards his team mates who had either started to groan or roll their eyes the moment when the hyper boy had opened his mouth. "Just think how crash it would be to play a game where all kind of powers are allowed!"

"Pass." Everyone else, except Riptide and Danny, announced in chorus making the speeders face fall in a disappointed pout.

"The Team." Riptide continued returning his attention to the halfa. "Is the group of under aged heroes under Justice League's supervision that takes care of the missions that are too sensitive to the public or requires more inconspicuous actions than publicly well-known heroes are able to do."

"In other words we are doing the spy stuff." Wonder Girl added. "Not always the most glorious work, but it's like the final step before becoming a fully-fledged member of the League."

Danny frowned and lowered his gaze to his gloved hands. The opportunity that they were offering him was almost too good to be true. He would finally be able to socialize with people who had faced, maybe not exactly the same, but at least the same kind of problems that he had every single day with his powers and ghosts. And the idea being around the Earth's most powerful heroes, he wasn't going to deny that even though he wasn't exactly their biggest fan, was almost overwhelming. He could learn so much from them: how to be stronger, how to protect people better, how avoid the accidents that had made most of Amity Park see him as a criminal. In this way he could maybe even protect Sam and her family better from Batman or whoever would dare to come threaten them next time. And he would be able to do so much more good….

But at what cost?

Who would protect his home while he was on the missions that the League would give him? He was already just barely managing to keep the balance between protecting the city from ghosts, school and his social life without revealing his secret ID as Phantom. The extra responsibilities that being a member of the League's team would give him surely wouldn't ease the burden he already had. Did he even want to become like them? The whole League was too secretive and controlling to his taste and he didn't want to lie to his friends nor family anymore.

And why were they approaching him now? Why not after the Vortex attack? Or Pariah's invasion? Surely his actions had been more impressive during them? Seriously! This time he had just come up with the plan and persuaded, or black mailed, the whole Ghost Zone into helping them. Was it because of what Vlad had done? Where they now afraid of him too? Or did they just simply want to use him like Vlad had?

And why should he even help them when, before this evening, they had done nothing to help him?

"I know this is a big decision for you to make." Riptide's calm words finally snapped Danny out of his darkening thoughts and the younger hero raised his head to once again meet the older man's gaze. "If you need to think, we can return-"

"No." Danny said quickly and maybe a bit harshly too since he noticed Superboy and Robin's muscles tense and their bodies lower slightly to a better defence position.

"Pardon?" The Atlantean warrior asked with just as controlled voice as earlier, but he too had clearly noticed his team mates' reaction from the corner of his eye since he opened his palm to give them a soothing gesture.

The halfa crossed his arms. "No, I don't need time to think. And no, I don't want to join your team."

His answer surprised them, it was easy to read it from the looks they were giving him. Kid Flash didn't even try to hide his disbelief. The brown haired hero stared at his ghostly colleague with the same horror mixed consternation look that Tucker had had after he had heard about the vegetarian week that Sam had managed to organize at the beginning of their freshmen year.

"But why would you do that!?" The fastest boy alive half shouted, his hands flapping like headless chicken's wings on a caffeine rush before the girl next to him hit the back of his head making the boy yelp out of pain and speed to the safety behind Superboy's back.

"Calm down you idiot."

Danny sighed then looked at everyone on the hill. "Look. It's nothing personal." It was a half-truth but no one seemed to notice, though Robin might have realized his lack of honesty on the basis of the irreverent snort that Danny heard under the black hood. "It's just that Amity Park is my "haunt", as you probably would call it, and I don't feel very comfortable leaving it without protection for long periods of time."

An awkward silence fell on the group, no one being completely sure how they should act, making Danny suspect that situations like these weren't something that the League's kids were used to. They had, after all, grown up in the world where their mentors were almost always idolized and loved, the villains and paranoid government's agents being the exceptions, so the ghost boy's obvious show of distrust towards the League's ability to keep up the peace must have been something new to all of them.

Danny was already about to say his goodbyes and fly away when Superboy, the last person he had expected to speak, opened his mouth.

"If this is about the protection of your city, I'm sure that the members of the League will be able to help you with that." The young Kryptonian assured, his weak smile showing that he understood the white haired boy's worries better than his teammates. Or at least, Danny thought bitterly, he thought he did.

"You mean like they did during Pariah's reign?" He asked sarcastically "Or when Vortex started to mess up with the whole world's weather?" Then he turned to look towards the caped boy who was without doubt glaring daggers at him. "The only time I have ever heard about any of them coming even close Amity Park, was when your mentor decided came to molest a citizen who had done nothing wrong."

The other now confused heroes turned to look at their youngest member, showing the halfa that either the League hadn't told them what had happened last October or that the bat themed hero, as he had hoped this whole time, had worked alone.

"What father did was fully justified." Robin growled dangerously, his hands slowly curling into fists. "Isley is an escapee."

Danny narrowed his eyes. " _Mrs. Manson_ has lived in Amity Park eight years without causing any kind of trouble." He reminded the boy while Superboy moved closer to the Boy Wonder, his eyes warning the other dark haired kid not to do anything stupid.

"Besides in here nothing ever is what it looks like." He was now talking to everyone. "Your date for the night can easily be just a ghost who is trying to make her boyfriend jealous. The therapist you meet twice a week might be eating your negative emotions without you even noticing it. And just a simple wish you make can turn the whole city into a warzone… Heck, even the mayor of this city was at least partly ghost and no one suspected anything until he changed his form in front of their very own eyes." _Not even mentioning that the school's biggest looser is also their greatest hero_ he finished inside his mind.

"We, and the League, respect your decision." Riptide finally told him, still wearing his perfect mask of serenity, breaking the tension between Danny and his team. How he managed to hold it all the time was way beyond Danny's comprehension. "But I want you to know, if there ever is a time when you need our help, we will be more than happy to give it to you."

Danny nodded and offered his hand. "Thanks. And if you ever have ghost problems, you know who to call." He might not be willing to dance on their tune, but offering his own knowledge was the least he could do after they had taken care of Vlad. "Seriously. Call me first before visiting. The city hall's emergency line should get on work in a few days, and I'm sure the mayor will be more than willing to convey the message."

"Of course." A small smile came to the Atlantean's lips as he answered Phantom's hand shake. "I wish you all the best in the future and hopefully we will meet again."

With a grin the halfa released Riptide's hand and floated off the ground. "Same to you guys. Oh, and if you came across any ghost on your way out of the city, just fly past them as fast as you can. Most of them don't like to leave outside the city limits, so you should be safe after passing the welcome sight."

"Good to know." Wonder Girl muttered darkly and flew to sit behind Superboy, who had already climbed inside their bike-thing, giving Danny the impression that the blonde had had some troubles with ghosts while looking for him.

"Last one in Chicago has to clean the bathrooms!" Kid Flash shouted before disappearing into the night in a bright coloured blur, not giving the others time to argue.

"Isn't he aware that he is the only one with a separated ride?" Still annoyed Robin asked as he too hopped in the vehicle, his eyes following Danny's diverging form making cold shivers travel down the halfa's spine, even though he was pretty sure that the kid wouldn't be able to hurt him from this distance.

After becoming once again invisible, the ghost boy turned his back to the leaving hero team and started to fly the longest possible route back to his home, not wanting to give them any chances to figure out where he lived, even though they probably wouldn't try to follow him anymore. With things like this one it was just better to be safe than sorry. Especially when the true reason behind the team's visit was still unknown.

Their timing was too perfect, just a couple weeks after he had become one of Earth's champions, making it far enough from the Disasteroid chaos that the situation had already pretty much calmed down, but still inside the time limit when most civilians would have expected the League to give their offer. Of course, Danny being his usual idiotic self, hadn't even thought something like that would happen to him. The point was though that Danny had doubts that the League would not be so shallow that they would ask him to join their "spy team" just because public would expect it. And he could even bet if he had accepted their offer and joined in the team, the League would have made sure that the whole world would have known about it. Even though Riptide had said that the team worked mostly in secret.

Groaning out of annoyance Danny rubbed his temples. This was going nowhere. Maybe it would be better to wait till tomorrow and talk with Jazz about this whole mess in the morning. She usually saw better than him what kind of games people were playing.

"It's chess, Daniel. Of course you don't understand, but then you never really did." His mind whispered the words that Vlad had said to him over a year ago after Pariah had once again been locked in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, causing the ghostly hero literally to hit his own face when he finally realised the ideology behind the sentence.

The battle between heroes and villains was truly like one huge chess game, both sides holding numerous pieces they controlled and who followed a certain set of rules. The League was familiar with this kind of game and during the past fifteen years or so they had managed to learn how to control it.

But then there were the pieces like Danny, the grey ones, who were under no one's control but were still able to affect the course of the game. In their eyes he probably was like an unknown factor of the equation who needed to be eliminated or turned to one of their own pieces before the opposite side would try to do the same.

"Great…. Just great." The halfa cursed under his breath and turned to fly on his back so he was able to see the stars above him. With Vlad the game had been at least somewhat simpler, even though he had had no idea that he had even been playing. The two halfas had been on opposite sides of the board and the number of pieces had been way smaller than in this new game that he had been thrown into without even being asked.

Grunting he moved once again look forward and increased his speed, his realisation making him want to get home even faster than before. Right now the situation might be under control, but only Clockwork knew what was going to happen next so he needed to get prepared for everything. If only there was someone who would be able to explain the rules to him. That way he would have at least some kind of hunch about what to expect.

No, that wasn't completely true. There was one thing he knew for sure.

He hated chess.

* * *

 _I know that this wasn't one of my best chapters but I hope you still liked it._

 _But once again I need to ask something from you or at least from those who live in USA. When there is summer vacation in Illinois?_

 _Me being one of those fans who likes to believe that one Danny Phantom season takes one year (or school year, whatever) and since I'm highly obsessed with making my stories with as correct timelines as possible, sometimes spent over a hour searching things like this from the internet. So you can only imagine how annoyed I was when only "good" fact that I was able to find was in USA summer vacation is "from early June to early September (in most northern states), the other major format lasting from late May to late August (in most southern and western states). (Excluding some districts, as some schools may end late June and begin early September.)"  
_

 _This is why I decided to make Phantom Planed to happed at the end of the May or at beginning of June, which is the time when our summer vacation starts in Finland... But it still isn't the right one!_

 _So if someone knows the answer I would be very thanful if you could aswer to this mystery, so I can use it in my next story where I have to figure out when Dani will start her school year... yay..._

 _ **But** once again thank you all for the past year.  
Oh and happy father's day to all father figures in Norwegian, Sweden, Iceland, Estoni and, of course, Finland! I know that the real day is tomorrow but who cares. _

_Love_

 _Kilppari_

 _P.s. It's just me or are my chapters getting longer?_


	4. For who I am

_Hello everyone! Long time no see._

 _Sorry about a long break. The past months have been a bit too full of everything to my taste and I simply haven't had time or energy to write..._

 _Once again many thanks to my beta jaguarspot._

 _And also big thanks to both actresspdx and RedShirt047 for explaining me how Summer Break works in USA. It helped a lot._

* * *

 _Nature's far too subtle to repeat herself_

 _-Paul Muni_

After Danny had left the house, heavy silence fell in the Mansons' living room. Pamela had finally managed to get her breathing under control and was now sitting still on the sofa, staring the girl in front of her with huge, unbelieving eyes and hugging Jeremy's arm like her life depended on it. Said man wasn't in much better shape than his wife. He was looking at his daughter as if she was a stranger instead of the child who he had practically raised alone her first eight years of life, causing an unpleasant cold clump to grow inside Samantha's stomach. Was this situation really that bad thing in their eyes? Were they worried about their family's safety now that they knew that Danny was a hero? Or had the boy's sudden transformation just been a bit too much for them to take in at once? Well, Sam mentally smirked to Ida's still excited smirk, at least her grandma had taken Danny's secret well.

Sighing Sam teared her eyes off the ceiling, through which her boyfriend had just disappeared, and started to talk to her parents with as calm voice as possible, despite the nervousness she was feeling.

"Look, I know this looks bad and you are probably going to get a new restraining order on Danny after this, but please, let me at least explain first."

Her parents didn't react, still too deep in their shocked states, but her grandma leaned closer on her seat, clearly wanting to hear the whole story of how her granddaughter's friend had become a metahuman, and gave Sam an encouraging smile.

"Seriously, this all has a perfectly logical explanation." She promised them with a weak smile. The two adults' blank stares were starting to make her feel really uncomfortable. "You see, about three years ago, Danny had this liiiiiiiiiiiiiittle accident with his parents' Ghost Portal, you know the one in their basement, that gave him some really cool powers and made him look like… well like a ghost." She talked maybe a little too quickly and only paused to take a deep breath before continuing. "And well, since the ghosts started to come to Amity Park through his parents' portal, we all thought that with the help of Danny's new powers we had a much better chances than any other ghost hunters to catch the ghosts and return them to the Ghost Zone before they could cause any damage. Soooooo in short…." She swallowed nervously to moisturize her suddenly dry throat and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "We have kind of been hunting the rogue ghosts almost every night since the beginning of our freshman year."

After Sam had said the words "hunting" and "ghosts" something snapped inside the red haired woman's head knocking her out of her shocked state and she jumped off the couch, staring her teenage daughter with a furious look on her face.

"YOU HAVE BEEN DOING _WHAT_ FOR _HOW LONG_?!"

The scream was immediately followed by a loud crash when every single plant pot inside the room (there were quite a lot of those actually) exploded in result of the plants' sudden growth to twice their previous size as they fed on the meta-woman's anger. Sam grimaced. She had never seen her mother this angry nor heard her shout so loudly, probably almost as loud as Black Canary's famous sonic screams, and she had to admit she was actually a little afraid of her right now. Maybe Danny's worries about her mother actually hurting her hadn't been as far-fetched as she had first thought.

"Calm down Pammy. There is no reason to turn green on our little Sammy." Ida chuckled, turning her daughter-in-law's rage purposely towards herself. No matter what anyone else said: Sam surely had the world best grandmother ever.

The former villainess, whose skin had indeed a green tint on it, turned to look at the old woman, her fingers curling like talons when she snarled at her. "You stay out of this!" She spat trough her teeth, only earing bored look from Ida, who, instead of curling up out of fear like most people would have done, just picked up her knitting, which she had been working on before Sam and Danny's arrival, and muttered irritably how her daughter-in-law really needed to lighten up.

Before Pamela had time to continue her rage, Jeremy put his hand on her shoulder in a calming motion. The one long look shared between the married couple seemed to be enough to calm the woman down enough that she was again able to control herself and lowered her hands showing that she wasn't going to attack anyone in the room. The ghost of a smile visited on the corner of the man's mouth as his wife relaxed under his hand. As the woman turned her gaze towards the floor, Jeremy moved his arms to give his wife an one armed hug while stroking her arm, before turning to glare at his daughter with stern eyes.

"What your mother means." He started in a low voice, trying to keep himself as calm as possible for Pamela's sake, but Sam was still able to hear the boiling anger behind his words. "Do you have any idea what kind of mess you have put yourself in, young lady? Playing vigilante isn't something anyone should do. You could have hurt yourself. Or worce, gotten yourself killed."

"Don't you think that I know that?" The annoyed goth girl snapped. "I'm not a child anymore, dad. I know the risks and I'm completely able to take care of myself." Then, after a deep breath, she looked at her parents with almost begging eyes. "You have always told me to do the right thing and help people in need. Is it so wrong if this is the way how I believe I can help them the best way possible?"

Next to Jeremy, her mother let out a watery laugh, finally looking again towards the young woman front of her with pity towards her naivety. "Oh Sam…" She sighed sadly. "If only everything was so simple." Hugging herself tightly, Pamela moved her gaze towards one of the destroyed flower pots, her eyes looking back at some unknown place and time.

"You know." She continued softly. "Once, I also believed that I was doing the right thing when I used my powers to protect the nature. At first I didn't even mean to harm people. I just talked to them, tried to make them understand how important plants were and show them the world in the way I saw it."

"But they never listened." She hummed with disappointment and disgust. "They continued to destroy those poor innocent plants, making me frustrated and filling my heart with anger towards them... Then one day, I finally understood that mankind would never see past their own selfish needs." At this point Sam's father was giving all his attention to the woman next to him, pulling her slightly closer to him, probably fearing that his wife would let the hatred of her past self control her. Pamela though barely noticed any of this as she continued to talk. "Their hearts were unable to feel any kind of sympathy towards anything but themselves. In my eyes, _they_ were the monsters and _I_ was the hero who had to stop them. But in the end… I was the only one who saw it like that…"

Sam looked at her mother. They had already talked many times about the reasons why she had become Poison Ivy and how she had honestly believed, and probably partly still believed, that she had been doing what was best to the living beings that had replaced Sam's role as the woman's children. Sam had accepted that and didn't even felt any kind of bitterness towards her mother because she had abandoned her, even though the woman insisted she had every right to feel like that.

"Mom, our situation isn't like yours was. Danny has already become a widely known hero. Even the League admits that. Besides we have only been dealing with ghosts who cause havoc in the human world, not with "real" villains." She tried to reaso with both of her parents, but mostly with her mother, a small plead in her voice. "Yes, I admit that we have made many mistakes and sometimes reached wrong conclusions because we were too blind and naïve to see past that stupid "all ghosts are evil" theory. But then we stopped for a moment to talk with some of them and now we have real friends among the ghosts and we can even visit in some parts of the Zone without any fear to be attacked, because we can trust our new allies to keep us safe."

Jeremy and Pamela stared at their daughter, their eyes widening out of new horror when they realised what Sam had just said.

"You have been in the Ghost Zone?!" They both shouted, their voices full of disbelief and dismay, making Sam grimace again. Maybe she shouldn't have said that last sentence.

"Oh, I knew we should have moved to Europe!" Pamela cried out and looked again almost like she was going to cry as she teared her hair. "I told you that this country is cursed, but did anyone listen to me? Of course not! And look now what happened!"

"How was I supposed to know that the Fentons would tear a hole between dimensions and make this city's urban legends become true?" Jeremy shot back, raising his hands up in a more frustrated than offended manner.

"But weren't those so called legends the primary reason why you wanted to move to this haunted city from the beginning, Jeremy? Weren't you the one who thought that those would work as a great cover story if I ever lost control?"

"Not all of us had the luxury to start a life with a clean slate! I had a work and responsibilities to take care of! Should I have given up all that just because Europe has less meta-humans?"

"Yes! That way this all could have been avoided!"

"HEY!" Sam finally shouted, interrupting her parents' shouting match. "Cut it out. Why are you making such a big deal of this?"

Pamela shot an angry glare towards her daughter. "The big deal, Samantha, is that this is the exact reason why we moved to Amity Park. To keep you out of all this craziness that hero-villain world keeps inside. It's already bad enough that you have been hanging around with a meta-human, but you have been hopping between two different dimensions too?!" The older woman covered her eyes with hand and exhaled trough her nose, trying to calm her nerves a bit. "I just don't want to even think about what will happen if, no, when, the League finds this out."

Sam just rolled her eyes. "They are not interested in the ghosts, mom. Seriously. Tucker and I once had to track down a ghost who was messing with the whole planet's weather all the way to Venice and we didn't see even a hint of any kind of heroes." Neither had they appeared during their last summer's little cross the country trip, but she had a hunch that it would be better not to let her parents to know about their adventure with the Reality Gauntlet just yet. Or it could also have been the the murderous look that both of her parents were once again giving her that made her keep her mouth shut.

"And how, if I may ask, you two managed to get to Italy?" Her father's eyes narrowed as he voiced the question.

"With the Fenton Jet Plane." She said calmly, which made the man raise his eyebrow.

"Are you trying to make us to believe that the Fenton's have their own plane?" He asked skeptically then paused for a moment to think. "No, don't answer that… It sounds so crazy that I wouldn't be surprised if they even built it on their own."

Pam shot an annoyed look towards her husband before turning her attention back to Sam. "It still doesn't change the fact that what you have been doing behind our backs has been utterly irresponsible and stupid. Not even mentioning dangerous!"

"I know, mom! I know!" She snapped back, slowly starting to lose her patience with her parents. "Can't you stop handling me like some kind of china doll? I already told you that I can defend myself, you know. And I'm completely able to make my own decisions."

"So you are just going to throw away all that hard work that your father and I have done so you could have a normal and safe childhood?!" The woman asked her voice higher than usual because of disbelief and anger. "Do you even realize how many big sacrifices we have made because of you? How much I fought so you could once again have a loving mother on your side? Doesn't it mean anything to you Samantha?"

"Maybe I never wanted to have a normal life!" The girl shouted back, angry tears trying their best to make their way into her eyes. "Why can't you finally understand it and accept me for who I am?! I love helping Danny defend my home from the ghosts! I love fighting ghosts and hearing my heart beating so hard that almost all sounds are buried under it! I love reading books about supernatural stuff and magic just as much as I love being goth and wearind black and spikes instead of pastel colours and frills!" Sam closed her now shaking hands and looked at her parents, who for once hadn't tried to stop her rant, with defiance. "This is the life I want. I do understand and respect everything you have done for me, but the girl you want me to be isn't me at all. Is it really too much to ask that you would trust me for once and support me on this? And don't you dare playing the "you have been lying to us"-card! You are the ones who have been lying to me almost my entire life!"

Immediately after her last words had left her lips, Sam grimaced and looked down at the floor with regret, not daring to look her parents in the eyes anymore. "… Okay, maybe that was a bit too harsh…"

"Maybe?!" Both adults asked once again at the same time, clearly hurt by their daughter's words. But then, after yet another moment of heavy silence, Pamela's shoulders slumped down and she walked slowly towards Sam and, to the young woman's great surprise, pulled her into a tight warm hug.

"Sam… You do know that we are only trying to make sure that you won't repeat the same mistakes that I did." She asked with a soft voice as she pressed her cheek against the girl's dark hair. "The justice the League loves to talk about so much is never as black and white as they make it sound. It is a dangerous game between madmen, where only one thin line separates heroes from villains. And there will always be people who will only see the bad things you have caused, no matter how pure your intentions may have been."

"I know mom…" Sam sighed and inhaled the familiar flowery scent that her mother seemed to always carry with her, remembering all those times when Danny had been called a villain even though he had just saved those very same people who cursed his name. "I know…"

"Well then…" The red head sniffed and brushed the tears off from the corner of her eyes before giving her daughter a serious look. "If you promise to be careful and to tell me immediately if any of you three ever meet a member of the League, villains, or any of their allies, I think we will let you continue your ghost hunting hobby."

"What?! No!" Jeremy protested before Sam had time to thank her mother. "Don't you remember what Batman threatened to do to both of you if he finds anything suspicious about your actions?"

Pam shrugged innocently. "We can always ask the Fentons to start again that ghost hunting club and make Sam join it as her cover story. I'm sure they will understand. This whole mess is their fault after all."

"But but but… Mother please. Talk some sense into them."

"Don't look at me, son." Ida told to him and winked towards her daughter-in-law "I'm just a silly old woman who doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut."

"But…." The man looked helplessly at all three women around him before he shot his hands up to show defeat. "Fine! I give up! You can continue playing hero with your friends. Just don't you ever say that I didn't warn you."

"Thank you dad." Sam smiled at him from her mother's arms, while said woman motioned her husband to join their hug.

"Just promise us that you will be careful." He demanded from the goth girl while embracing the women of his life.

"I will." Sam promised and buried her head on her father's chest.

"And you will tell us how that suitor of yours proposed to you!" Ida's voice called from the background.

Sam froze as she felt how her now confused parents' heads turned towards her grandmother and for the first time in very long time the girl found herself cursing the old woman's usually so perfect timing that had saved her from so many problems before.

"What do you mean proposed?" Pamela asked the old woman before her eyes caught the piece of jewelry in her daughter's left ring finger.

"Samantha." Her mother's cold voice made the girl swallow nervously. "Where did you get that ring?" Laughing nervously Sam looked up at her parents who were waiting for her answer with stoic expressions, the warmth in their eyes, which she had seen only a moment ago, long forgotten.

Something was telling her that this was going to be a very long night.

* * *

 _The main reason why I love Poison Ivy so much (and other villains with similar back stories) is that technically speaking she is not a villain at all. She is just trying to protect "her babies" from mean murderous humans. Heck, once she even "stopped being a villain" and moved to live to some dessert island that she turned to a second Eden. But of course some idiotic corporation decided to test their new weapons systems out on it and ruined Ivy's happy life, making the villainess hate humanity even more than she had before..._

 _'Till the next time_

 _Love_

 _Kilppari_


	5. Blooming tea

_Be like the flower that gives its fragrance even to the hand that crushes it._

 _-Imam Ali_

It was a beautiful summer day in Amity ark. Birds were singing, most of the flowers in Pamela's priceless garden were in their full bloom filling the air around them with the heady scents, while still somehow managing to work in harmony and create a soothing atmosphere to those near them. In short, it was a perfect day for drinking an afternoon tea outside with your dear friend.

"I took the liberty to assume that you still like to drink your tea with cream." Pamela said to her guest with a teasing tone while placing a silver tray on the wooden garden table.

"Of course." Selina chuckled and took the white china cup from her long time friend's offering hand. "What kind of cat I would be if I didn't?"

"A fastidious one." The redhead answered simply before sitting in front of the former thief and took a small sip from her own cup. "But I have to ask, what brings you and your fiancé to Amity Park anyway? I'm not saying that I didn't love that you decided to come for a surprise visit, but you did make me quite curious."

"Business. As usual." Selina told her with a slightly bitter tone as if her man would never take her anywhere just for fun. "Bruce is trying to create a cooperation agreement between Wayne Enterprises and Fenton Works. Apparently, now that ghosts are proved to be real, there is a huge need for ghost proof security systems, which also means that there is now a completely new market hole that many companies are trying to fill."

"And since the Fentons are the current experts on this field, everyone is trying to buy them on their side." Pam finished. "Well that might explain why Daniel was complaining to Sam how all billionaires are creepy stalkers."

The other woman raised her eyebrow as an expression of her interest towards her friend's words and lowered her cup back on its plate. "I wonder who he meant with that."

"I'm not completely sure, but it fits too much with the rumour about Luthor being seen in Amity Park." She explained with a darkening expression. Not only was she still angry at Luthor from the last time he had asked her a favour (even though it had triggered the chain reaction that had led her back to her family) but neither she trusted the man who still, after all these years, managed to keep up his honest businessman act in the eyes of the public. "I assumed that he was only interested in buying Mr. Master's old company, but maybe he too was interested in buying the Fentons knowledge."

"Rumours, huh?" Catwoman gave her friend a teasing grin. "You didn't happen to hear those from your babies?"

The former villainess glared half-heartedly the dark haired beauty. "Don't underestimate the power of gossiping, darling. You will notice soon enough that some old hawks among the upper-class ladies have mastered those skills terrifyingly well."

"If you say so." Selina chuckled good naturedly and raised her cup to take another sip.

"But let's talk about some more interesting subjects." Pamela proposed, slyness clear in her eyes. "How are your dear Bruce's nightly hobbies going?"

Selina didn't even blink. "I'm not sure what you are talking about Pamela." Then she gave her friend a knowing look. "But if you meat his former playboy life, I can assure to you that I have made sure that he has no need to even look towards other women."

Pamela gave her a sweet smile. "Oh, I'm sure of that. I have just heard that your lovely white knight has this little… _darker_ side in him that appears after sun falls down. If you know what I mean."

The cat themed heroine's eyes hardened as she studied her friend who continued to enjoy her drink, acting as if the two women weren't talking about anything more interesting than the day's weather. It didn't mean though that the meta-human wasn't aware of how dangerous a game she had just started, but Poison Ivy had always been the master of manipulation and just because she hardly used her skills purposely anymore, it didn't meant that she had lost them. Of course this all would have been much easier if the person in front of her had been a male, or if she could have used her plants or pheromones to bend Selina under her will, but the truth was that, for once, she needed her friend to come to her side willingly if she wanted to get what she wanted.

"How long have you known?" Selina finally asked, her voice heavy of suspiciousness.

"Not that long." The meta-human admitted as her cup was about to touch her lips. "To be honest, it was you who just me. Oh, and don't look at me like that Selly." The redhead requested with a hint of amusement in her voice when her friend narrowed her eyes dangerously. "It wasn't like I hadn't had any suspicious before this. I have known you a very long time, my friend, and I can still recognize that dreamy glint in your eyes you always had whenever you were talking about Batman. The exactly same one that you have when you talk about your Bruce. And then there are also those rumours about Catwoman working with Batman that started around the same time you got engaged with your lover boy." Pamela explained, leaving purposely away the fact that she would have never put two and two together if the reveal of her daughter's boyfriend's secret hadn't opened her eyes. Only a few villains cared much about keeping their real identities as secret. And those who really tried usually gave up all that nonsense after their first trip to the jail. The reason behind this was because, unlike heroes, criminals understood better the power behind names. Who would be afraid of a villain going around with names like Bob or Susan? No one… Names like Joker, Cheetah… Poison Ivy. Those were the ones that seeded the fear inside the hearts of the people. But to heroes their names were just one more mask, allowing them to disappear among the mass. That had been why she had been so blind, like some stupid civilian, never realising that the man who she hated more than anything in the world was hiding in plain sight, right under her nose.

But Daniel had changed it all…

"And what are you going to do with him now that you know?" Selina question snapped the redhead out of her thoughts. The former thief's words came out as coldly as the glare she was giving the woman across the table. The garden around them had completely lost its earlier warmth leaving only a heavily hostile atmosphere hanging over the two women, making even the birds around them lower their voices and hide behind the protecting leaves of the flora around them.

Pamela placed her tea on the table as she seriously looked at her friend right in the eyes. "Nothing." She finally said causing her companion to raise her eyebrow again, this time out of suspiciousness towards the former villainess word. "As long as he stays away from me and my family, I will not have any reason to hurt him nor his loved ones."

"So you are blackmailing him." The dark haired woman stated, understanding very well that the woman's threat included her too, and her face twisted out of disgust.

Rolling her eyes, the redhead picked a simple cookie, identical to a dozen others, from the tray between them with her gloved fingers. "Do you think I'm still crazy enough to do something that stupid?" She asked before offering the sweet to the woman across the table. "No Selina, as much as I hate him, I'm only wishing peace between our families."

Catwoman stared the cookie on the woman's hand. "How can I know that it isn't poisoned?"

"You can't" Pamela admitted, her face not showing any kind of emotions.

"Or maybe you already but poison in my tea."

"Maybe."

"And as far as I know, you might be already controlling me."

"That is true."

"But you aren't."

"You can't know that."

A tilt of the head "Then why are you doing this?"

Small smile "Isn't it obvious?"

"…." Selina took the cookie and studied it for a moment then looked at Pamela again. "I think it is." and with those words she took a bite and chewed the backed good, clearly studying its flavours carefully before giving the meta-woman an amused smile.

"Lemon peel?" She guessed as she took another bite, breaking the tension between the two friends, allowing the former eco-terrorist to relax again and a smile to return to her lips.

"And a little bit of vanilla too." Pamela chuckled picking another cookie for herself and gave her guest a questioning look. "No hard feelings?"

"For what?" Selina asked sarcastically as she glared her red haired friend. Though, to Pamela's relief, her eyes were lacking the sights of true anger or resentment. "For threatening my own, my fiancé's and our kittens' lives? Of course not."

Now it was Pamela's turn to give a questioning, and slightly amused, look to the cat heroine. " _Your_ kittens, huh?" She asked, smile tugging the corner of her lips. "Don't say that your predator's heart has already softened towards that annoying flock of little birds."

"They all are sweet kids. A bit extreme sometimes, but nothing that a gentle touch of a good mother figure can fix." Catwoman hummed, her expression softening a bit as she twirled slowly the white cup on her hand, her eyes following the whirl that the remains of her tea created. "Though even I have to admit that some of the damage that Talia has caused to Damian's psyche might be too much even for all of us to undo."

Her friend nodded her head. Of course she was aware of the stories on how the newest Robin was the biological son of both Batman and Talia al Ghul and to tell the truth, Pamela pitied the boy. The child had been meant to become a perfect assassin, a worthy heir to his grandfather's tittle as the all too famous League of Assassins' leader, but luckily the fates had had other plans and the child had ended up into the care of his father. But the damage had been already done, and the world of the supers had stolen yet another childhood from an innocent child who deserved much better.

"To be honest. I never saw you as a motherly type." Pam chuckled and looked at the other woman with an amused glimmer in her eyes. "You always were the one who scowled at me whenever I put the well-being of my plants ahead of our missions."

Selina snorted. "Maybe because my kittens are living human beings who have feelings and are able to talk back to me unlike your table plants." The former thief rolled her eyes, the old fight from their younger years already reminding both of them _why_ their little gang had broken in the first place.

"Oh please." The red head bristled at the comment and crossed her arms. "How many times I have to explain this to you. Plants are sensitive creatures who have their own feelings and need just as much care as human children do. I should know." She added with cold voice but her eyes didn't show any true anger. "I have been a loving mother for both of them."

"You are a crazy plant lady… Of course you would claim that your little flowers are alive." Her guest shot back while gesturing lazily towards one of the many well-kept flowerbeds. "And even that wasn't a good excuse for you to try to kill me just because some of them died on my watch."

"You should have watered them. You _said_ you would water them." Pamela snarled to the woman, her gloved hands curling into fists against her pink skirt when she remembered the cruel fate, which one of her rarest and most precious orchids had faced. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep calming breath through her nose before looking at Selina again, now wearing the same happy smile that she had on her lips almost all the time nowadays. "But as you said yourself: I'm a lady, _a proper lady._ So I'm not going to continue this meaningless fight with you."

Selina stared at Pam, clearly asking if the woman was serious with her words. "You are kidding, right? Or was that again one of those hoax practices that your psychiatrist has kept feeding you"

Pamela's smile seemed to grow even happier as she poured more tea to the other woman's cup. "It's this nonsense or I will feed you to Sammy's Venus Flytrap." She told her sweetly. "Besides Mrs. Queen is an excellent psychiatrist. And also a civilized woman with good taste. But of course I can't a expect thief like you to understand."

"Ex-thief." Selina reminded her sourly as she raised her cup back to her lips. "I'm a hero now, as _you_ know very well."

Amused redhead shook her head a little, while her smile lost its happiness, leaving only a soft sad curve on her lips. "What happened to us Selina?" She asked suddenly. "We used to be the Queens of Crime. We were a perfect team. We did what we wanted, took what we desired and no one could stop us. And look at us now… An upper-class house wife with anger management issues. A kleptomaniac hero…" She chuckled without any true humour. "And then there is our poor Harley whose life hasn't changed at all. Even though she is the one who deserves this the most."

"Life is a bitch." Catwoman admitted with a sad sigh. Then a teasing grin returned to her lips. "But to be honest: I never believed that you would ever stop trying to turn the whole planet to the one giant greenhouse. Don't you ever get bored without any good action in your life?"

"Oooh. But my there is plenty good action in my life." She said sweetly with suggestive smirk, which made Selina let out a knowing giggle. "And believe it or not, I actually have grown to enjoy this new peaceful life style. For once I'm a perfectly normal woman with a perfectly normal family." It wasn't exactly the truth, she had to admit it to herself, but compared to her villain years (and in Amity Park's standard), her family lived an almost completely average life.

For now... Pamela thought sourly as she mentally gritted her teeth as she thought about the blue stoned ring that never seemed to leave her daughter's finger.

But something in Pam's words made Selina's smile fall and she became weirdly interested in the tea cup on her hands, only answering the redheads words with an absent hum. Of course this only made Pamela suspicious, and now it was her turn to narrow her eyes.

"Selina… Is there something you need to tell me?" Catwoman was a fool if she even dared to think that she would let the subject drop before she had get a straight answer. In the most likely case she had only heard about Sam's ghost hunting hobby from her fiancé, or maybe they had managed to find out about the connection between Fenton and Phantom, which would explain why Wayne was suddenly so interested in starting a business with them, and Pamela had nothing to worry about.

Selina let out a frustrated sigh. "It's nothing, Pamela." She tried to convince her. "You will just start worrying about something that you would most likely never even notice."

The meta-woman only continued to glare at her friend. "Don't make me repeat my question Selina."

"Fine." She groaned and placed her cup back on the table. "Samantha has an active meta-gene."

"She has a what gene now?" That wasn't what she had been expecting. In the worst case maybe something in Sam that could have been seen as a side-effect from that plant ghost's possession or that her mother-in-law was a retired member of the Green Lantern Corps, which would actually explain a couple things, but this meta-gene that her friend had mentioned didn't sound anything like that.

"The meta-gene." Selina repeated "Is a special genetic marker that about 12% of humans have. In most cases it's inactive and the carrier of the gene will never even know if they have it or not. But sometimes when said person goes through some kind of huge physical trauma, the gene activates and helps the person survive to it."

"But?" Pamela voiced the word that her friend had left hanging in the air, asking the question she already knew the answer to while her mind tried desperately to figure out how and when her little Sammy-kins could have gone through something so painful that would have caused the gene to activate.

"It makes the carrier of the gene a meta-human." The dark haired beauty's quiet voice cut the silence between them like a knife.

"No…" Pamela said as she stared at her friend, half expecting the hero to start laughing and tell her she was just joking. "This has to be a mistake. Sam doesn't have any powers. Wh-where did you even get that idea."

Selina gave her an apologetic look. "Bruce took a DNA sample from the glass that Sam used in our party." Pamela groaned and buried her face in her hands. She should have known. Batman never trusted anyone so why would he have believed her when she had literally screamed on his face that she hadn't done the same to her daughter as Jason Woodrue had done to her.

"Pamela." The black haired woman said with understanding in her voice. "It's not as bad a thing as you think it is."

"Not as bad as I think?" she laughed out of disbelief. "My daughter is a meta-human. Do you really think that Batman is going to let her live with me now that he knows? Or if he in some miracle does, he will force my poor baby girl to become a part of the League's little junior camp and make her fight against all those insane villains and... and…" And now she was crying. Pamela had surely done it a lot ever since Sam had found out the truth. All this was just too much to her. Yes, she could live with the fact that her daughter fought ghosts with her friend, but as the girl herself had said: they had never dealt with "the real villains". The game she played was way simpler and fairer than the one Pamela had been part of. People lost themselves in that game. Pamela herself had just barely managed to save what was left of herself and escape from that life. And now her little angel would be forced to go through the exact same nightmare she had.

"Hey…" A soft voice muttered in Pam's ear and two gently but strong arms were tied around her. "Bruce isn't going to do anything like that. I won't let him." Selina promised to her sobbing friend. "Besides. Sam's gene is weak. She hasn't probably even noticed herself that there is anything unusual in her."

"What you mean?" Pam asked as she tried to make her tears to stop. Was a weak meta-gene a good or bad thing?

The dark haired cat hero took her hands and started to explain calmly. "The League has studied the meta-gene just a couple years but it seems that it can be separated to three different classes. Strong meta-genes are the ones that give people clear, powerful skills, like Black Canary's scream and Static's ability to shoot electricity from his hands. Then there is mutated meta-genes. They have reacted to whatever chemical or radiation that the carrier of the gene has been exposed to and changes the person's genetic code in a way that they can survive. All Flashes have this kind of gene and…"

"And me…" Pam finished darkly. It would actually explain why she had survived from Dr. Woodrue's experiment when she should have died. And now it seemed that Samantha had inherited the gene from her. The redhead shuddered when the realisation hit her. Oh, how clever Batman must have felt himself when he had seen the results of the DNA-test. Even though he had been mostly wrong, when he had come to blame Pamela from the plant ghost's attack, in the end, the former villainess had indeed been the guilty for her daughter's powers.

"Yeah. Just like yours." Selina admitted with a sad smile before continuing. "But there is also weak genes. They are the most common ones. All those hundreds of people who have little skills that normal humans don't have. Psychics, people who can sense auras, bend spoons with their minds, run or heal a little faster than regular people, you name it. All of them have an active meta-gene."

"And." Pam swallowed nervously "And Sammy has that kind of gene?"

Selina nodded and squeezed Pamela's hand. "Yes. But don't worry. Whatever powers her gene has given to her, they will never become strong enough to cause any true damage. What I mean is that if Sam turned out to be able to do telekinesis, she won't ever be able to do more than lift a single book from the table, even if she trained her whole life."

"That sounds… good." Pam said a bit unsurely and dried her tears with her napkin, leaving messy trails of black mascara on it.

"It could be worse." Her friend agreed with soft smirk, which only made the meta-woman roll her eyes.

"Do you really think that even Sam doesn't know about this?" Pamela asked finally and moved her hands out of Selina's gentle grip. The other woman understood her friend's sigh and got up from the ground and moved to sit back on her chair at the other side of the table.

"I can't be sure, but I do believe that she would have at least hinted something to you by now." She answered honestly. "And if I were you, I would keep it that way. After all, the easiest way to hide a secret is not to know that you have one at the first place."

Pamela thought over her friend's advice for a moment before shaking her head. "We promised each other that there would be no more secrets between us." She told her with a slightly melancholic voice. "And even though I do want to hide this from her, Sam deserves to know." Pam let out a dry chuckle. "And she surely is going to love having a superpower. No matter how weak it is."

"Are you going to tell her about Bruce too or…" Selina asked awkwardly. Pam knew her well enough to realise that the woman would like to forbid the redhead from telling Sam anything related to her fiancé's secret identity, but she also understood, and probably even respected, Pamela's decision to stay honest to her only daughter.

"Well, technically it's not my secret." She admitted, teasing glint in her eyes. "So in theory, I'm not breaking my promise to her if I left out who the Batman truly is." And it was only fair that Pamela bent the rules in the same way Samantha had. The girl had, after all, kept her ghost hunting in secret another half year after them making that promise, this way ensuring that no one would find out Daniel's secret until the boy wanted so.

Selina gave her friend a thankful nod. "I'm sure it will be better that way." She agreed "But what about Bruce? Do you want me to tell him that you know?"

The redhead bit her lower lip nervously and stared her empty cup. "It will be better if he knows too. Just make sure that he won't come after me or my family, okay?"

"Of course." She promised. "And he isn't as bad as you think, Red. Paranoid, yes, but even he has some sense in his head."

Pamela gave her a blank look. "He broke into my house and threatened my daughter without any good reason."

Selina struggled her shoulders innocently. "He had a bad month."

"Just a month?" Pam asked sarcastically and crossed her arms, which her friend only answered with a not so amused huff, but didn't say anything else so they let subject drop, this way most likely avoiding yet another bicker.

Both women managed to continue talking to each other almost another hour before Selina had to leave back to the hotel where she was staying with her fiancé. She thanked Pamela for the tea and pulled the redhead in for a warm hug.

"You are doing a great job Pammy." The heroine told her with an honest smile after she was already in black car, which she had rented from a local office. "Just… Try not to worry so much. Okay?"

"Okay." She promised, which Selina answered with an approving grin.

After her friend had drove off, Pamela returned to the garden to gather the tea set they had left behind. The day had been more eventful than she had expected, but at least now she knew that Batman would get her message and she still had her friend on her side. Now she only needed to figure out how to tell Sam about her meta-gene and what kind of ability it had even given to her. Not even mentioning what she should do with the Fentons if they actually ended up making a deal with Wayne.

But it all could wait, Pamela thought as she heard the voices of three teenagers and one younger girl, telling the woman that Sam and her friends had finally returned from the water park. The day was still young after all and it seemed that Pamela would finally get a chance to meet the newest member of the Fenton family. It had been a while since she had met a clone and Pam found herself wondering how different the female version from Daniel was compared to Superboy. Did the girl even know about the Cadmus clones? Maybe Pamela should share the little information that she had from them with her, so Danielle would at least be aware that she wasn't the only clone in the world.

Pamela smiled as she listened the girl's happy chatter that grew louder the closer the woman was to the backdoor. Maybe Selina had been right. Maybe she really needed to stop worrying so much.

And if these four managed to do it, the redhead thought as she got the first glimpse from laughing youths, maybe even she could do it every now and then.

* * *

 _"There are roughly 1.3 million metahumans on Earth, 99.5% of which are considered "nuisance-level" (such as kids who can bend spoons with their mind and the old lady "who keeps hitting at Powerball"). The other 0.5% are what Checkmate and the O.M.A.C.s consider Alpha- and Beta-level threats. For example, Superman and Wonder Woman were categorized as Alpha-level, while Metamorpho was considered a Beta." - DC wikia  
_

 _Funny fact. I found this fact **after** finishing the chapter..._

 _And what comes to Sam's meta-gene. Undergrowth's possession is not the reason why it's active. Well, at least not completely. It is more like a result of continous high emotional and physical stress and close death situations, not even mentioning how many times her body has been under some sort ghostly effect. (Ecto-acne, Dora's amulet, that Spectra's ghost sickness...) Undergrowth was just a last straw that broke the camel's back.  
Or maybe it was the car crash that I mentioned a couple chapters ago that activated the gene.  
_

 _But I'm curious. What do you think is Sam's power?_

 _'Til next time_

 _Kilppari_


	6. Dinner

_Hi everyone and sorry again about the long break. My only excuse is life.  
_

 _Once again hundreds of thanks to my beta jaguarspot_

 _To Mirria1... I never thought I would say this about anime but... Thank you for suggesting me to watch Ghost Hunt. It was surprisingly good._

 _And to everyone else who reviewed. Thank you. I had a good time while reading your ideas and comments._

* * *

 _Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them._

 _-A. A. Miller_

-We are leaving now.

 ** _-Could you try to hold them up a bit longer?_**

-Sigh… How bad it is?

 ** _-The dessert came alive and stole one of my parents' guns. We managed to capture it, but you really don't want to see our living room right now._**

-….

-I thought you said that Jazz banned your parents from the kitchen or something.

 ** _-She did! I swear I have no idea how they managed to get ectoplasm in the cake batter._**

...

-Okay. I hid the car's key. You have maybe 15 minutes before mom is gonna call a taxi.

 ** _-Thanks!_**

* * *

 ** _-What kind of ice cream I should buy?_**

-Seriously? You couldn't think anything more cliché?

 ** _-It's that or 5 minutes microwave brownies._**

 _..._

-Buy Neapolitan.

-And make sure it's made of tofu!

* * *

-The taxi arrived.

 _ **-We are almost ready**._

-Good.

 ** _-Just remember that I love you…_**

-Danny. It's just a dinner.

 ** _-And tell Tucker that it was me who broke Evelyn._**

-No one is going to die!

-And do you seriously remember how Tucker has named his PDAs?

 ** _-…._**

 ** _-I don't?_**

-Sure.

-We are now in front of your house.

-And just in case… I left my testament on my desk.

* * *

Sam stared at the familiar two-storey building like those red tile walls in front of her were holding inside the most painful doom she could imagine. Behind her back, the goth girl heard how her dad payed the taxi driver whatever the ten minutes car ride had cost their family, while her mom hummed patiently, probably checking her makeup from the pocket mirror that she always carried in her purse.

"Are you ready, dear?" she asked as the car drove off, the familiar sound of the closing mirror proving Sam's theory right.

"As soon as you are, honey," the man answered airily, making the girl groan internally. So it was going to be one of these kind of days, huh? Sam had already learned ages ago that this pastel coloured perfect family act was at least partially just something they used to maintain their public image. Of course her dad had always been optimistic and cheerful in nature while her mother was an eternal beauty loving perfectionist, but this level of syrupy precocity was hardly ever seen while they were on their own or in presence of close friends.

Sam really hoped that this only meant that they were at least half as nervous as she was right now.

Jeremy and Pamela walked arm in arm past their daughter towards the greyish blue door, the red head's blue summer dress matching perfectly with her husband's shirt, which he wore under a cream coloured coat. They would have wanted to wear something slightly fancier but luckily, after hours and hours of arguing, the teen had managed to persuade them to choose something more casual so they wouldn't be that overdressed compared to Danny's parents who were probably just going to wear their trademark jumpsuits like usual.

Sam inhaled deeply to calm her nerves before she too walked up those stone steps that separated the entrance of the house from the street.

"Here we go!" her dad announced happily (and this time Sam couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes) and pressed the doorbell, causing the classic 'ding dong' sound to ring behind the door, though Sam could have sworn that she also heard some panicking orders and clatter that the wooden door mostly muted. And judging from her parents' faces, she wasn't the only one.

"Remember to stay polite," Pam said through a forced smile. "This is our first family dinner together so we need to leave a good impression if we want to make this work."

Sam was just about to remind her mother that they had already left a bad impression all the way back in her freshman year when they had insulted the ghost hunters' jumpsuits, when the door opened revealing the widely smiling Dani who, to Sam's surprise, was wearing one of those shirt and skirt dress things that had been pretty popular a couple years ago.

"Hi Sam! Hi Mrs. Manson! Hi random dude who I have never met!" the preteen greeted them with all that innocent happiness that only a physically twelve but technically one-year-old person would be able to possess. Jeremy though didn't seem to understand that, seeing how the female halfa's words made his smile twitch comically, forcing Sam to hide her sudden burst of laugher under a fake cough, which only caused her mother to shoot her a warning look before turning to answer the small girl's greeting.

"Jeremy, I don't believe you have yet met Danielle," she then started to introduce the two to each other. "Danielle, this is my husband Jeremy."

"Mmm… Nice to meet you?" the ghost girl said with a slightly unsure voice and glanced towards Sam as if asking if she had done the right thing. Sam nodded her head but also raised her hand a bit, as if to shake it with someone, making the halfa quickly offer her own to Sam's father. Sam nodded her head again, happy to notice how well Dani had managed to improve some of her basic communication skills during these couple months she had spent in the Fenton household. Vlad might have taught her a lot about the world and how to deal with people, but there were still a lot of holes in the girl's knowledge and basic communication skills. Especially meeting new people (who weren't trying to hunt or otherwise hurt her) had turned out to be something she wasn't very good at, but with the help of her new family, especially Jazz's, Dani was fast learning how to act more like children her physical age.

Jeremy shook Dani's hand. "Ah yes, you must be that cl-, Daniel's new sister who I have heard so much about." The sharp kick to his ankle from behind had made the man correct his words before he had accidentally slipped the c-word that Danny had made very clear to be banned in the presence of the youngest halfa.

Luckily the girl didn't seem to notice or care and was about to answer when another familiar, almost gigantic, form appeared behind her.

"Sure she is!" Jack Fenton laughed and messed with Dani's hair, which she had brushed back with the help of a green hairband that matched with the colour of the upper half of her dress, earning an annoyed yelp from the tiny girl who still clearly was happy from the man's endearment. And to Sam's surprise (which she should have seen coming after seeing Dani in a dress) the large man had abandoned his trademark orange jumpsuit, replacing it with a dress shirt the same colour and a pair of black pants.

The goth let out a low, impressed whistle. Sure Danny had mentioned that Jazz had gone a bit crazy after their parent's had invited Sam's family to dinner, but this time she surely had surpassed herself. Though Sam had to admit that she was a bit disappointed when she noticed that it was impossible to tell if her parents were either surprised or pleased aa they just turned their happy smiles towards the man in front of them.

"Good afternoon mister Fenton. I have to say, it truly was sweet for you to give Danielle a loving home in so short notice," Pamela said, earning another energetic laugh from their host while he motioned them to move inside.

"Please Pamela, call me Jack. And of course we took Ellie Belly in. After that awful accident that killed my second cousin-"

"They know the truth." Danny's voice called from somewhere out of Sam's sight and his now confused father stopped talking about the cover story they had made up to explain where the newest Fenton had appeared.

"They do?"

"Samantha told us," Pamela simply stated.

"More like we forced her to do so," Jeremy chuckled before starting to explain a bit more specifically how the youngest halfa's history had been revealed to them. "You see, we found it rather… unusual how a young girl, who to top it all looks almost like your son's identical twin, appeared to live with your family only a couple days after that Disasteroid accident." And by 'we' Sam's father had meant his wife whose past had given her a slightly better eye with these kind of things, but the goth knew very well that he would never admit that in public. "So when we voiced our worries to Sam, she kindly explained the situation to us."

"That's one way to put it," Sam muttered under her breath causing the ghost girl next to her let out a short giggle.

"Don't worry Ja- Dad. Sam asked for mine and Danny's permission before telling them anything," the preteen assured to her adoptive/technically biological father.

The black haired man looked at both girls in the eyes before the grin returned to his face and Jack slammed Sam's dad on his back with a good natured laugh. But just like usually, the ghost hunter hadn't paid much attention how much strength he was using, causing Jeremy to almost fall on the floor with a startled yelp.

"Of course!" Jack laughed, completely unaware of the accident he had almost caused. "No secrets in the family, am I right Jerry my man."

The younger man answered with a pained grunt that could have easily been read as either an agreement or a show of annoyance while Sam's worried mother hovered over him, trying her best not to give the large man mean glares and hide how uncomfortable Mr. Fenton's innocent words had made her feel. Shaking her head Sam rolled her eyes and moved past the adults, Dani following her close behind.

"So your parents are not going to tell the others about you-know-what?" she asked with a hushed voice as the two girls walked towards a large dinner table that had been carried in the place of the Fentons' couch so both families would have enough room to eat together. Sam wasn't sure where they had gotten it, but if she had to guess she would have said that it was either borrowed from Tucker's family or one of Danny's friendlier neighbours.

"Nope."

"Well that's stupid. I mean Danny and I already know so why not them?"

Sam shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Maybe it has something to with that you both are metas like her so she has something to blackmail you."

Dani made a disgusted face. She shared her brother's opinion about their so called meta-human status, but for some reason the younger hybrid showed more dislike than him when someone called her one. It was probably nothing, but Sam couldn't help wondering if something had happened during the year that the girl had spent on her own.

It was then that Mrs. Fenton walked out of the kitchen carrying a steaming platter of something that smelled like creamed potatoes, Jazz and Danny soon following her, both of them carrying their own serving plates.

"Hello Sam," the scientist greeted the girl with warm smile. "How has your summer been?"

"It has been okay," Sam answered. It had indeed already been over a month since she had last seen her boyfriend's mother other than just in passing while hanging out with Danny and Tucker in their house. The title 'world's leading ghost experts' had in short time become something respected in eyes of the public, leading to numerous invitations to all kind of seminars, requests of professional help with various paranormal chases not even mentioning the exploded number of ecto-weaponry and ghost shields orders that Fenton Works had received ever since the beginning of the summer. Naturally all this new fame had lead both Danny's parents to work long hours every day, even though they had managed to hire some old employees of VladCo to help them.

"That's good to hear," the Fenton family matriarch put the bowl on the table and looked towards Sam's not so exited looking parents who were still talking with Jack.

"Well," she then sighed and brushed some non-existent dirt out of her long black skirt, "Let's get this over with." And with those words she marched over the other adults like a soldier to the battlefield, leaving confused and somewhat amused youths standing in front of the table.

"I take it that your mom still doesn't like my parents that much," Sam stated as she observed how Mrs. Fenton greeted her guests with a much stiffer smile than she had given to their daughter.

Jazz gave her an apologetic smile as she placed the bowl of salad on the table. "Don't worry Sam. I'm sure she will get over it eventually."

"That might take a while though," Danny commented and greeted Sam with a small peck on the check, making his girlfriend blush slightly. "You know how good mom is at holding a grudge. I mean, you saw what she did to Vlad's lab."

"Actually that was because I told her about the hologram Maddie program," Dani giggled earning a confused look from Jazz and causing both Sam and Danny to groan out loud.

"What?" the youngest girl's question would have sound innocent, if only the smirk on her lips hadn't told a completely other story. "I just told your mom that she is much cooler than those creepy computer wives. How could I have possibly known that she would snap because of that?"

"Wow wow wow. Vlad actually made a hologram AI copy of mom?" a now disgusted Jazz asked. "And here I thought that those pictures on his computer were gross."

"He is a crazy fruitloop," the other three reminded her with blank faces.

"Yeah I know, but-"

"How about we all sit down and start dinner. Jazz has made a delicious mushroom steak for all of us and it would be a real shame if it gets cold before we can even taste it." Maddie's voice interrupted their conservation and the teens turned to look as she started to lead Sam's parents towards the table with a forced polite smile. And judging by the looks in Sam's own parents faces, she wasn't the only one who had a problem to act like a civilised person.

"Oh look, they managed to get along almost ten minutes," Danny said quietly under his breath so Sam was probably the only one who heard him. "That must be a new record or something."

"Be nice," she tried to scowl at him, her inability to hide the amusement in her voice making it unnecessarily hard. The ghost boy just gave her his version of Jazz's famous 'you know that I'm right' look before moving to pull a chair for Sam's mother who was clearly pleased with the young man's polite gesture.

The dinner itself went without any bigger issues, mostly because (almost) everyone tried their best to avoid any kind of touchy subjects, which lead them mostly to discuss safer things like where Jazz was planning to go study the next autumn, the city politics, the newest news or how Dani's adoption process was going despite the fact that the girl didn't officially exist. Of course Jack tried more than once to start explaining how some of his and Maddie's inventions worked and what kind of new discoveries they had managed to develop after taking a more open perspective towards ghosts and their behaviours, but usually the other Fentons managed to turn his attention elsewhere quite easily or at least with not so subtle hints. Sometimes though, either or both Sam's parents showed something that Sam would have sworn to be an honest interest towards the topic and even attempted to continue the conservation, before Mr. Fenton started his unstoppable monologue or someone turned the conservation elsewhere.

When they were finally finishing the dessert, a simple bowl of three flavoured ice cream for each, Sam's dad decided to ask Danny's parents if they had received any promising business offers from larger companies. The two ghost hunters shared an unsure glance, wordlessly negotiating how they should answer to Jeremy's question, who was just as aware of Mr. Wayne's visit a bit over a week ago as Sam was. The younger Fentons also turned to look at their parents, starting to follow the ongoing conservation with newly found interest. Danny had once mentioned to Sam how his parents hardly ever talked about these possible business partners in the presence of him and his sisters and always asked them to leave whenever suited men (only once in whites) arrived in their house, so she guessed it was only natural for them to want to hear more. Finally, Mr. Fenton cleared his throat with a nervousness that was completely out of his normal character before he started to speak.

"A few actually," the large man admitted. "Though we haven't yet made any decisions."

Hi wife nodded. "The LexCorp's offer is the most promising. They are offering financial help as well as selling us both office buildings and laboratories for minimal prices and all they are asking is for a 10% of the shares and occasional help with their own projects."

"But Maddie and I are worried about Mr. Luthor's dislike towards most superheroes," Jack sighed sadly, like a little kid who had just been forbidden eating candy before dinner. "So we can't really be sure how these projects will affect Danny and Ellie's safety."

"Then there is the government's offer," Mrs. Fenton continued with a hint of boasting in her voice, and Sam was almost sure that she was trying to make her parents regret all those insults they ever said about her and her husband's unusual lifestyle.

"Not them again," Danny groaned while Dani let out an unimpressed snort.

Maddie gave her son an understanding smile. "Honey, I know we have had our disagreements with the Guys in White and you have every right not to like them, but they are still a great financial support worth considering, especially now that they promised to stop hunting Phantom."

"That won't make them any less jerks," the older halfa pointed out and Sam agreed to his words with a sharp nod.

Mr. Fenton just chuckled. "Worry not kids. The government is just our spare choice. Especially after Mr. Wayne came to personally meet us about a possible cooperation agreement."

"Wait," Jazz said, her eyes wide. "Mr. Wayne? As in Bruce Wayne? The owner of the Wayne Enterprises?"

The man puffed his chest up with pride "The one and only."

"But that's great news," the now excited red head beamed. "Of course both Lexcorp and Wayne Tech are the world's leading developers of new technology, but Bruce Wayne is also a well know supporter of both the Gotham's local heroes and the Justice League."

"His company is also known to let them use their technology freely," Sam's mother, who had been following the conservation quietly, said seriously. "Which makes me wonder: What kind of contract Mr. Wayne offered you?"

The air around the table became much heavier as the Fentons processed this new information and shared some worried and confused looks while Sam and Jeremy looked at Pamela, trying to understand where this sudden hostility towards her friend's fiancé had come. On Sam's opinion, in the short time she had seen her mother socialize with the billionaire, the two had seemed to get along a pretty well even though Mr. Wayne had firstly been a bit awkward around the former villainess who may or may not have tried to kill him in past (Sam had never bothered to ask nor was she sure if she even wanted to know). Maybe she too had found out that Mr. Wayne was directly helping her former "arch enemy" only after the Valentine's day gala. Was it even public knowledge or another super-world thing?

"Nothing is set in stone yet but he is offering some sort of marketing cooperation," Mrs. Fenton spoke carefully, mostly because even though she was the one usually taking care of the business side of the Fenton Work's, she wasn't that familiar with how these kind of thing usually worked between big companies. "The Wayne Enterprises will lend us money, sell us the materials we need for a fair price and also provide other kinds of help 'till we have managed to adapt to this level of demand. Fenton Work's will also be allowed to use their already existing shipping routes and be part of the Wayne Tech's marketing program, but Jack and I will still be the ones controlling our company."

"But?" Pamela asked.

The older red head sighed. "In the following 12 years, the Wayne Enterprises will get 7% of our yearly profits and they will have a rights to prevent sale contracts that they find 'unfitting for their company's image'."

"So you wouldn't be able to sell anything without them knowing it," Jeremy nodded his head and leaned his back against his chair. He didn't say it out a loud, but Sam was pretty sure that by 'them' her father had meant both Mr Wayne's company and the League. The Fentons may not have as big reasons to dislike 'the World's Greatest Superheroes' as Sam's family had, but after Danny had refused their offer to join their cover team at the beginning of the summer, and the young halfa had explained to his family the reasons behind his decision (obviously leaving the Poison Ivy part away), they all had become quite wary and worried about what the League's next move would possibly be or if they were even going to reach out at all.

"When does Mr Wayne want to hear your decision?" Pamela asked suddenly gathering everyone's attention on herself.

"It was by the end of the next week, wasn't it Mads?" Jack half asked his wife who agreed with him, her suspicious eyes locked in Sam's mother.

Pamela nodded her head, a sly glimmer slowly growing in her eyes. "Then there is still plenty of time for me and Jeremy help you create a more profitable contract proposal with Mr Wayne. After all," she added with a sweet smile, "none of us wants those government's maniacs to become even more dangerous than they already are. And Mr Luthor's rumoured links with black markets and villains would surely make him a very questionable business partner."

After that the conservation exploded in a completely new way between the four adults, Jazz occasionally throwing her own opinions in the mix. The youngest three though got bored pretty quickly and it didn't take more than fifteen minutes before both halfas started to collect the empty ice cream bowls and carried them to the kitchen, which turned out to be like a war zone, with Sam's help. The scattered burning marks and piles of ectoplasm around the room gave the goth girl a good idea about what kind of shape the living room had been on when Danny had texted her earlier and she couldn't help but be a little impressed about how they had managed to hide all the damage that the cake had done in such a short time.

Dani disappeared sometime soon after they had piled all plates and bowls on top of the counter, purposely giving Sam and Danny some alone time or maybe just escaping the mountain of dishes that the dinner had left behind.

"So what do you think?" Danny asked casually as he rolled the sleeves of his red suit shirt up while they waited for the sink to fill with water. "Is Luthor actually some sort of villain or was your mother just trying to scare my parents?"

Sam just shrugged her shoulders and stared at a green stain on the ceiling that was slowly dripping ectoplasm on the floor under it. "Not sure, but I think the first one might be true."

"Oh great. Another evil millionaire," the boy snorted sarcastically. "That is exactly what the world needs."

"Let's just hope that he doesn't have any superpowers," she chuckled and picked up a drying cloth from the edge of the counter.

Danny also let out a short laugh and turned the water off before pursing his lips slightly in a thinking matter. "That reminded me… Any progress in figuring out what your all powerful, butt kicking superpower is?"

Sam's smile fell and she gave her boyfriend a mean glare that was soon followed by a frustrated sigh. "Nothing, nothing at all," she complained. At first, when her mother had sat her down one afternoon soon after Selina's surprise visit and told her about the meta-genes and how it had turned out that she had one, Sam had been really excited. Who cared if Batman was an even bigger creep than she had thought, when she had a possibility to be able to do something inhumanly amazing? Sadly, she had also noticed pretty fast that knowing you can do something special and figuring out what that something was were two completely different things.

"At first mom thought it might be something plant related, because I most likely get the gene from her and she believed that I had made some seeds grow into blooming flowers during one of our fights. But since we haven't managed to repeat that, it all was probably just her own doings. I have also tried to levitate things, read minds, lift heavy things, tested if I heal faster than an average person," she listed and purposely ignored the look that Danny was giving her, "change the colour of my eyes, checked if I can turn invisible or see ghosts when they are… But none of those have worked!"

"Hey," Danny said softly and gave Sam a one armed hug. "Maybe you just haven't figured out how to trigger your power yet, whatever it is. We both know how hard it was for me to learn how to make duplicates, so couldn't it be possible that you are having the same kind of problems?"

"You at least knew what was supposed to happen," the sulking girl crossed her arms. "To me it's almost like I had suddenly grown some kind of invisible extra limb somewhere around my body and I have no idea how to move it."

"I'm sure you will figure that out someday," the halfa assured while rubbing awkwardly the back of his neck, the habit that Sam loved more than she would ever admit. "And to be honest, I don't care that much if you have powers or not. You are perfectly awesome just the way you are right now."

"Aaw, thanks Danny," she hugged the boy back and gave him a soft kiss on his cheek. "But I would still prefer to get that superpower. If for nothing else than to annoy Tucker."

"And take a risk that he turns back to that jealous ghost monster?" he asked with a teasing tone. "Maybe I should ask my parents to make you one of those inhibitor collars that the prisons use to neutralize supervillains' powers."

"You do that and I will suck you in a thermos and drown it in the deepest part of the Lake Eerie that I can find," Sam threatened back in the same manner. Tucker had actually taken the news about Sam's possible powers surprisingly well and only joked about how come he was the only normal person in their group, which on both Sam and Danny's opinion was hardly a truth. Or who knows. Maybe someday their friend would turn out to be a lost prince of some weird little country or twin brother of an important hero or something else as weird and unlikely as that.

"No you won't," Danny smirked. "You would miss me too much."

"You wish, Ghost Boy," she huffed and hit her boyfriend with the cloth, which was still dry thanks to the completely forgotten dishes. Danny just laughed at this and attempted to capture the goth in his arms, mercilessly tickling her till Jazz came to investigate the reason behind the loud noises and ordered them to start doing something productive instead of just goofing around.

In the end, the Mansons' dinner with the Fentons was almost a success. Awkward and tense yes, but no one had started a fight nor had anybody left with banging doors and in Sam's books that was a huge progress. Her mother had even given Mrs Fenton and Jazz praises for their delicious food.

It wasn't until later that evening when Sam's whole family had once again gathered in their living room to watch the news and spend time together when her father lowered the book he had been reading, a baffled look on his face.

"Honey, I just realised something."

"What is it, dear," Pamela asked, half of her attention still focused on the newsreader on TV while Sam continued reading her own novel and her grandma kept on knitting the grey sweater that seemed to have the Ghostbusters logo on it.

"I just realised that if this whole ghost security thing continues in the same direction as it has the past couple months, the Fenton's will be millionaires before the end of the next year."

The three women turned to look at the blonde with various confused expressions and Ida even let out a low, impressed whistle.

"Oh…" Sam's mother said finally and blinked her eyes to clear her thoughts a bit. "Well I guess that also means I should soon start inviting Madeline to afternoon tea with the other ladies. That will surely end up being something very interesting…"

Sam just shook her head and returned to read her book. The Amity Park's high society would surely meet the shock of a life time if Sam's father's prediction turned out to be true.

She just really hoped that the money wouldn't go into the Fenton's head like last time…

* * *

 _Things that I think need a little explanation:  
-Dani isn't yet that confortable adressing Jack and Maddie as 'dad and mom' but she tries her best whenever they are around. That is why she said 'your mom' instead of just 'mom'._

 _-The Fentons usually call Dani Ellie since it's less confusing and Jazz thinks it will help her to see herself as an individual person and not 'just a clone'. And since Jack clearly loves giving nicknames to his kids (Danny boy, Jazzy pants) he often calls Dani Ellie belly._

 _-G.i.W. don't hunt Phantom anymore because he is now a global hero and they would be in a huge problems if they ever hurt him. That doesn't mean that they have abandoned their 'all ghosts are evil' ideology._

 _-The reason behind Bruce's proposal is that he wants to keep closer eye on Danny. After the deal he would have an excuse to visit Amity Park more often but he has also noticed that Danny uses ofter his parents inventions so this way he would know what those gadgets are and he can also prevent Fentons from selling them to 'the bad guys'._

 _In the next chapter we will once again meet new DC character. Some of you may have even guessed who that character will be since there has been some hints._

 _'till the next time_

 _Kilppari_


	7. Ignorance is bliss

_Heipä hei everyone!  
_

 _Isn't it wonderful that summer is finlly here? If only there weren't so many mosquitoes and blackflies out there..._

 _Anyway, it seems that I need to explain one little detail from the previous chapter. There is nothing special in Tucker. I mean he has no connection with any DC characters. I just felt bad for him when I realized tht he was the only "normal guy" in our beloved phantom trio._

 _Wait! What am I talking about? Of course Tucker is special! Who else would be able to hack ghost's mechanical armor only with PDA and become a mayor of the semi big city only at age of 16?_

 _Once again big thanks to my beta jaguarspot_

 _And to the rest of you_

 _Enjoy_

* * *

 _When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all._

 _-E.O. Wilson_

It had been a while since Pamela had visited Seattle. The last time had been part of the healing process that her therapist of that time had insisted Pam went through, letting her face her past or something as sappy as that. Honestly, Pam had never liked the woman that much, she had been a coward and constantly faked understanding the emotional chaos that Pamela had been going through back then. Only Jeremy's promise to let her meet their daughter again had prevented Pamela from murdering that annoying meat-bag during her first months in the mental hospital and luckily, after Pam had been released to live with her family, they had ordered another psychiatrist to oversee her progress.

Sadly, just like last time, her mental health was the reason why she had travelled across almost the whole country to her birth city: to have her yearly check-up session with Dr. Queen.

It wasn't like Pam had been avoiding the city, quite the opposite actually. It was, after all, the place where she had grown up, met Jeremy, fallen madly in love with the man, got married a little too young and become a mother just a couple months after her twentieth birthday. It was just that Pamela had no more reasons to visit there anymore; no friends nor family to meet, and all the possible family trip plans to Seattle had been remained just like that: as plans.

After the Manson's had moved to Amity Park, Pamela had usually met her doctor in Rockford, but since Mrs Queen was now a fresh mother of a less than six months old child, the woman had asked if they could meet somewhere closer to the west coast. And of course Pam had said yes. Especially after the younger woman had explained how she didn't trust her husband to be able to take care of their infant son on his own longer than eight hours at once. Pam couldn't even blame her, when it had taken almost two years before she had herself had a heart to leave Sam in the care of her grandmother so she would be able to continue her studies and pursue her dream career as a botanist.

They had chosen to meet in Seattle mostly because it was familiar to both women and its lack of supers, the necessity that Dr. Queen understood much better than her predecessor. Pamela's therapist's husband also happened to own an office building in the city and he had been more than happy to let his wife to borrow one of its rooms for their use. Though Pam couldn't help wondering if Mr Queen would have been so openhanded if he had known who his wife's patient truly was.

The professional confidentiality surely had its own benefits.

Pam fingered the edge of her favourite gloves while waiting for the elevator to lift her to the 20th floor where the receptionist had directed her when Pam had asked for directions to the room she searched. Pamela usually enjoyed these little meetings with Dr Queen that were one of those few times she was allowed, and in a way demanded, to remove all her masks and speak honestly about her feelings and everything that bothered or scared her. And the passing year had surely brought more than enough those kind of headaches. Pamela would have lied if she had said she wasn't nervous because of this. After their last meeting Pamela had lost control of both her powers and temper more than once, one of which almost lead to the death of a human being and Pam was pretty sure that Dr Queen wouldn't accept 'he threatened my daughter' as an excuse. In the best possible scenario these accidents would only lead to a long talk and they would once again go through all her anger management practises. Pam wouldn't even be surprised if Dr Queen wanted to return to their more than once a year meeting schedule. In worst case though… Well, maybe it would be best not to worry about it before the session had even started.

The elevator jumped slightly when it stopped before the metal doors slid open revealing a boring hallway that, with its dull beige walls and stone floors, could have been part of any other office building if there hadn't been a stylized Q on the opposite wall, almost literally screaming who the owner of the building was. Only a few people were seen outside their offices, most of them probably returning from their lunch breaks or the morning's meetings, and even fewer payed any attention to Pamela who in her coral pantsuit should have stuck out like a rose among the violets in this colourless environment. She didn't mind though and just continued to make her way towards the room where her therapist had asked her to meet.

The room itself wasn't hard to find, mostly thanks to the receptionist's help and the fact that it was the only door in the whole hallway without a nametag. Apparently the room had been out of use for a while now, but Dr. Queen had promised Pam that its furniture had been left alone after the former employer had retired, meaning they wouldn't have to sit on the floor during their meeting or anything like that.

Pamela knocked on the door, letting only the calm self-confidence to be seen on her face, not wanting the passing people to imagine anything less than her being yet another rich business lady who they probably saw walking through the hallways more than once a day. And in a way they would be right, even though Pamela didn't usually take part in her husband's family business in any other way than the normal house wife was expected to.

The deep female voice asked Pam to come in and she did so by pressing the handle down and pushing the door open, only to be greeted with a smile from a familiar face behind a wooden desk that naturally controlled the otherwise sparsely furnished room.

"Ah Pamela. It's good to see you. I hope you didn't come across any bigger problems on your way here," the dark haired woman on her early thirties said and moved around the table to give Pamela a warm hand shake.

"Good to see you too Dinah. And yes, everything went fine. Traffic was a bit heavy like usually this time of day, but nothing I hadn't expected." Pam told her warmly, silently noting that the woman hadn't yet completely lost her pregnancy kilos, giving Dinah slightly fuller curves than she had had a year ago.

"Good to hear," Dr. Queen smiled, motioning for her patient to take a seat on a comfy looking armchair in front of the desk. "And I'm sorry I don't have anything to offer you this time. I didn't have time to pick anything up on my way here, and I didn't want to bother Oliver more than we already have"

"It's alright," Pam assured while sitting down on the leather chair and watching how Dinah placed herself next to her instead of returning behind the desk, purposely trying to create the feeling of a casual conservation between two friends despite their more… care relationship like connection. That though didn't stop the redhead believing that without Dr. Queen's role as her therapist, both of them would have been great friends. "How is Connor?"

"He's a happy and healthy ball of energy. Just like every mother wishes their baby to be," the woman beamed, a hint of motherly warmth in her voice as she dug her wallet up from her purse to show a picture of little Asian girl hugging a blonde baby who was staring at the camera like he didn't fully understood what was going on.

"I see that Cynthia has truly embraced the role of a big sister," Pam chuckled as she recognized the protective glint in the nine year olds eyes that even the picture had managed to capture. 'Make my brother cry and I will make you cry' it said and Pamela was sure that the photographer who had taken the picture had had a hard time trying to keep this girl happy.

The children's mother joined in the laugh, "You have no idea. If she and Ollie don't stop pampering Connor soon, they will spoil my poor boy completely rotten."

"Don't worry. Jeremy tried do the same with Sammy when she was younger and she still ended up being a level-headed young woman, if I may say so myself."

"Good to hear," Dinah chuckled while putting her wallet of and then opened a small notebook that had been resting on her lap. "But that gives us a good starting topic to our session. How has your and Samantha's relationship been. Have you been able to find the golden mean that we talked about last time?"

Pamela paused for a moment to gather her thoughts before answering, not sure how she was supposed to explain their current situation to her therapist. Dr. Queen was a very skilled woman to detect when people were hiding something from her, and even though Pamela wanted to tell her the truth so she could ask Dinah for some much needed advice, rephrasing her answer in the way that wouldn't worry the other woman more than necessary was harder than she would have hoped to.

"We have managed to find a kind of mutual understanding," Pamela ended up saying simply, her fingers once again starting to nervously play with the hems of her glove and she could have sworn she heard a little voice sounding a surprisingly lot like certain harlequin she knew to giggle in her head how ironic the circumstances leading to that outcome had been. "After Sam found out the truth."

Dr. Queen's eyes widened slightly, not otherwise showing any marks of surprise. "I assume that this wasn't something you were planning to do," she then half asked while writing something down on her notebook. The topic of letting Sam know about Pamela's past had come up during their past sessions almost every time. Dinah often insisted that hiding something this big from Samantha would only inhibit the development of a healthy mother-daughter relationship, not to mention the anger and bitterness that could possibly follow if Sam found out her mother's past at a later age or on her own. Naturally Pamela had been against the whole idea, firmly believing that the less Sam knew the safer the girl would be from the allies and enemies that Pamela had managed to gather over the years.

"Yes," Pamela answered stiffly avoiding the eye contact with the younger woman. Understanding the redheads troubled feelings, Dinah placed her hand top of Pamela's own gloved one and gave her an encouraging smile.

"Pamela. You do know that I'm not here to judge you nor your actions, but to help you to process the problems you might have and to see what you have possibly done wrong. And as I have promised you before: nothing that you say during these sessions will ever leave these walls."

Pamela nodded her head and gave the dark haired woman her own nervous smile, which her therapist answered before she leaned back against her chair and returned to her notes.

"So, could you please tell me what happened between you and Samantha that lead her to find out your past?"

Pamela gritted her teeth, a bad habit she had picked up at some point of her villain career that still showed up whenever she was frustrated or slightly angry, before spatting out her six letter answer.

"Batman"

The sharp snapping sound was heard when the pen Dr. Queen had used to write her notes suddenly broke in two on the woman's hand, giving both women a small scare. The embarrassed younger one started immediately apologize and clean the growing ink stain on her papers, but Pamela just laughed at the whole accident, joking half-heartedly how nowadays nothing was made to last. Deep inside her though… She felt how a seed of doubt was planted in her mind.

Pamela was not a fool. She has always been aware that Dr. Queen most likely had some kind of connection with Gotham's Dark Knight – whether it was partnership, debt of some sort or just a card with his number on it somewhere in the bottom of Pamela's favourite therapist's desktop box, she did not know – because Pamela knew her enemy and knew that he would never leave someone as dangerous as her without a guard. And who would be better to that job than a person who was trained to recognize the warning marks of Poison Ivy's possible return.

But as their session continued, and Pamela found herself once again explaining what had happened between her and Batman all those months ago on that cool autumn night, Pam found herself looking at the woman in front of her in a completely new way, secretly studying her micro-expressions and trying to catch the short flashes of annoyance and… disappointment? that her eyes sometimes showed, bothering Pamela with a weird feeling that neither of those emotions were meant towards her.

She had to know Batman, Pamela was almost sure of that. Really know him. Not like some half clueless helper like Commissioner Gordon was, but like that little bird boy had known him. What would that make Dr. Queen then? A secret protégé of Batman from his earlier years, maybe? She surely was young enough – only around 13-years-old when Batman had first appeared – and if she remembered correctly, Dinah had once mentioned she was originally from Gotham. But who was she now then? Everyone in the world of the supers knew Nightwing, Red Hood and Red Robin's statuses as former Robins, so wouldn't it be only natural that, if Dinah truly was Batman's protégé, this woman too had created her own superhero identity?

Of course Pamela's suspicions weren't evidence, she knew that. But still, it fit. In reality she was most likely just over thinking and this gentle woman in front of her full of understanding and sympathy was just a normal civilian like everyone else in this building.

But Pam couldn't be 100% sure so she continued studying. And talking.

Their session continued, and to Pamela's great relief, Dinah was once again able to understand what had been going through the villainess mind during that night and only forced Pamela to go through yet another 20-minute lecture about how she should learn how to control her anger. After that they talked a little more about Sam and the girl's new relationship with Daniel, which lead to discussing how things were going between Pamela and Jeremy. And finally they finished with familiar discussion of how Pamela's powers were effecting on her mental health and if she had had any strong feelings that were related to plants or how people treated them during the past year.

Despite the constant nagging voice somewhere in the back of her head, the possibility to pour out (almost) all her worries to someone made Pamela's heart feel much lighter than before she had entered in the Queen Industries' Seattle department's office building. It was the main reason why she continued coming to these meetings a year after year, even though she found them to be mostly unnecessary. That and the bunch of legal reasons and contrasts that she had had to sign to enable her integrate from the mental hospital. And even if Pam was thankful for Dr. Queen for being there for her during some very hard times and giving her support that nobody else had been able to give her, not even her friends and family, it hadn't stopped Pamela from finding herself later that night staring at three photos that she had printed from two separated internet cafes on her way back to the hotel where she was staying.

The first one was a photo of Dr, Queen that Pamela had found from some webzine, giving the viewer a clear shot of the black haired woman's face. The other photo, the leftmost one that Pamela had placed on the bed right next to the other ones, on the other hand had been a bit harder to find. Not because the person on it was less known than the wife of the man who was one of the America's richest men – quite the opposite actually – but because Pamela had taken her time trying to find something showing this other woman's face in the same angle and distance as Dr Queen on the other photo, and even though Pamela's eyes travelled constantly between all three photos, it was the middle one which she looked at most intensely.

This one was different than the two other ones. Technically it was two pictures on one, since Pamela had carefully cut off the woman's face from the left picture before placing it on the top of the photo showing Dr. Queen, making her best effort for it to look like her therapist had been the one wearing that tight bustier-leotard combination under a blue jacket. The whole process had made the redhead feel really stupid, almost like she had been a teenager gluing her own face next to her favourite celebrity (naturally she had never done something like that) and Pam would have been more than happy to stop wasting her time with something like this if only there hadn't been her tendency to get obsessed with things that bothered her.

So there she was now, comparing the photos of Dinah Queen and Black Canary with the third one and slowly accepting something she had deep inside always known: it was impossible to ever truly leave the world of the superheroes and villains behind. This shouldn't have been that big a surprise since Pamela was still regularly in contact with her two best friends, even though it meant she was consciously breaking her releasing contract, but knowing this still didn't make it hurt any less.

Pamela took a deep breath through her nose and rubbed her eyes, then picking her cell phone up from the bed where she had left it after she had talked with Jeremy and Sam to let her family know that she was still alive and how her day went.

The woman tapped the device against her chin, wondering if she was truly doing the right thing. Ignorance was truly bliss and yet it was knowledge that held the power. And what kind of power Pamela was holding in her hands right now. The civilian identities of two members of Justice League, maybe a third one too if Dinah wasn't cheating her husband and Oliver and Green Arrow were the same person. There were so many ways how she could use this information to her advantage and less than ten years ago she would have done anything to find herself in this position. But things had changed and now nothing was as simple as it had been back then.

Pamela stared at the number on the phones screen. The plan that she had in her mind was more than risky. The failure or discovery would ruin more than one life, but the success…

She closed her eyes and pressed the call button, praying in her mind that this wouldn't turn out to be a huge mistake. It took only three beeps before the quiet clicking sound informing that someone had answered.

"Red? Is everythin' okay?" a confused and slightly worried voice asked from the other end, which was understandable since Pamela had never called on this number before. It had always been the other way round. "Did somethin' happen?"

Pamela smiled a bit, not even trying to deny that hearing the familiar accent in this situation made her feel oddly nostalgic.

"Harley… I need a favour."

* * *

 _I feel like that there is again couple things I need to explain in this chapter_

 _Cynthia Lance, or Sin as she is better known (and yes, Cynthia is her civilian name in comics. Just google it if you don't believe me) was (is? I don't think she is part of New 52) Dinah's adopted daughter who was meant to become the next Lady Shiva. In this universe Dinah saved Sin a bit before or soon after the season 2. And if possible, in any case, DON NOT leave her alone with Damian Wayne or let these two assassin kids play with each other. Oliver learned this the hard way after arranging a play date between these two._

 _Connor Lance-Queen (just Queen in this universe) is Dinah and Oliver's biological son in Injustice comic series. And before you ask: in this universe it was either Barry or Hal who bought the muzzle._

 _Dinah (and Oliver) actually used to live in Seattle. She had a flower shop called 'Sherwood Florist'._

 _Oh and btw. If you think you know what Pamela's plan is... You are wrong._

 _Till the next time!_

 _Love  
Kilppari_


	8. Back to School

_Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher_

 _-William Wordsworth_

To tell the truth, Sam had never been a big fan of the idea of being home schooled.

While growing up, Pamela and Jeremy had often reminded Sam how with their obvious wealth, their family could easily give her an education with ten times better-quality than Amity Park's public school could even dream to offer, but that had never interested Sam that much. Sure, she liked to read and understood the importance of proper education, but at the same time Sam had always tried to make her parents understand that the money shouldn't define how good an education you were getting, even though Sam's true reason for refusing their offer (demand) had been more selfish in nature. After all, the normality that the normal school offered was the only thing that would keep her sane in the madhouse she called her home.

Or at least that was what she had thought before meeting Danny and Tucker.

When Sam had started at the public school, she had been in the same class with Danny and Tucker from the very start, but had somehow managed to be completely unaware of the two boys' existence over two months. That all had changed when she had found out that her scrawny classmate's parents were real-life ghost hunters. Of course, that had meant that the already not so ordinary 8-year-old Sam just had to start spent all her free time with the said boy, not caring even slightly what the other boy and his best friend thought about it.

She truly had been a spoiled kid back then; her dad had taken a good care of that, not even mentioning how her so called friends back in Seattle had almost never argued against her ideas and done everything she had wanted them to do, just because her family happened to have more money than theirs. Now when she thought about it, her former attitude was probably one of the main reasons why the now inseparable trio's friendship had had such a rocky start.

Hardly anyone remembered it anymore, but when Sam had moved into Amity Park, she had been more like yet another bully to Danny and Tucker than a friend. A weird bully who purposely always hanged around the two boys, but bully nevertheless. Little Sam might have been smart enough to make a decision not to tell anyone about her rich parents so she could find some real friends that the books always talked about, but it had been a surprisingly hard to readjust to how people at her new school weren't as willing to dance on her tune as they had been at her old one. This had caused Sam and Tucker to fight a lot, Danny being too timid and unsure of himself back then to even try to raise his voice against his bullies, and it hadn't been unprecedented to find either or both of them sitting in front of the principal's office with a black eye or huge bump on their foreheads.

Then, after one slightly rougher fight, which had lead Sam to lose her last baby tooth and Tucker to break his nose, the principal of Amity Park's elementary school had had enough. The man had ordered them all – Danny included since he had tried to stop the fight, leading the teachers to mistake him as being part of it – to clean the playground, which some high schoolers had messed up the previous night, on their own. The principal had been that kind of person who had believed that the good old hard work was the best way to make the misbehaving kids learn some team work and lead them to respect each other a bit more, but of course none of them, nor their parents, had been happy about the idea. In the end though, it had been just what the trio had needed. Under the watchful eye of the old janitor, Sam, Tuck and Danny hadn't had any choice but do as they were told and talk to each other nicely if they wanted to spare themselves from suspension.

Naturally there was much more to the story, but in a nutshell, during that long afternoon Sam had learned that sometimes you needed to accept that others kids had their own opinions too, Tucker had realised that the weird new girl wasn't that bad after all and Danny had seen that, for once, he wasn't the only one who thought his parents had the coolest job in the world (a feeling he had lost during the following years but had been able to regain after turning into a halfa).

But back to that whole home schooling thing.

So, as she had already said, the thought of being forced to be home schooled had always made unpleasant shudders travel down Sam's spine while growing up. But even in her the most bizarre nightmares, she had never even feared that one of her own parents would be teaching her. Neither had she been able to predict how her two best friends would be there too, sharing these extra after school lessons with her, following with indestructible interest how Sam's mother stuck colourful pins on the map of North-America while she read her hand-made notes to her three students.

"As I mentioned earlier, Zatanna is one of the few publicly known second generation heroes. She moved to Las Vegas a couple years ago, where she has apparently become a quite popular stage magician, meaning that finding her shouldn't be a problem if you ever find yourself in her city. And let me see… If the rumours are correct, her father, Zatara, become the current Doctor Fate soon after I was released from Arkham, so I recommend to avoid talking about him if possible, since it might be a sensitive topic to her," the redhead browsed through her remaining papers to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. "And since we already talked about Fate, I think that was all I had for you today… Any questions?"

Danny's hand shot almost immediately on the air making Tucker next to him to snort a bit, amused by the other boy's eagerness. The ghost boy had taken this opportunity to learn more about the other heroes (and villains) almost too seriously and sucked every word he heard during Pamela's lectures like a sponge. Sam and Tucker – both of whom also found these lessons very interesting and useful – had gotten into the habit of teasing their friend for it, reminding the halfa at every opportunity they had, how Danny could easily be their school's primus student if only he showed the same obsession during the school day. Danny didn't seem to mind this though, most often just saying it to be a Fenton thing.

"You recommended that, because of his super hearing, the easiest way to find Superman in Metropolis is to stay in one location and shout his name and say you want to talk to him, but wouldn't it be easier to search for Lois Lane or just go to Daily Planet's office? Knowing his history with Miss Lane, it would only be logical to assume that she knows how to contact him."

Another thing that Sam had learned about her boyfriend during these lectures: Danny was a Superman fanboy. Or at least, the Man of Steel had been the role model whose actions he had tried to mimic during his early days as a hero. As if his 'Super Danny' personality hadn't been a big enough clue.

Pamela looked at the teen while thinking about his question and Sam couldn't stop herself from imagining her fixing some non-existing glasses while doing so.

"While your suggestion does make sense, Daniel, we can't exactly be sure if the theory is a correct one. It's true that Superman has saved Miss Lane numerous times and in the eyes of public it might look a lot like they have some sort deeper relationship, but things are rarely that simple. Miss Lane is a reporter after all, which means as far as we know she could easily purposely put herself in dangerous situations, forcing Superman to save her and this way giving Miss Lane a perfect opportunity to interview him," the woman told to the three teenagers, two of which weren't that interested about listening to her anymore, while Danny's face fell a bit. "It's almost as if I would assume that Miss Sanchez and you have a romantic relationship just because you have saved her a couple times more often than your other classmates."

"Bad example" Tucker hid his comment under a badly faked cough, causing Danny's face turn to a deep shade of red, while Sam kicked the techno geek's leg under the table, giving her friend a glare that surely would have murdered him if that had been possible. And although Sam's action did made Tucker to let out a small yelp and move his chair further away from the girl, he still kept snickering behind his phone to the young couple's great annoyance. Sam also noted how her mother too seemed to find the situation to be quite amusing as the smile on the corner of the older woman's lips broke her otherwise controlled expression.

"I will pretend that I understood what that all was about," Pam hummed as she glanced at the watch on her wrist. The time it showed made her frown and Pamela started immediately to collect her notes back on the folder, while continuing to talk to her "students". "You should hurry and go change your clothes now. It's starting to get late and I'm sure that your parents would approve if we end your training session before your curfew."

That final comment teared the original members of the Team Phantom's attention from their personal problems back to their self-appointed mentor. For a short moment, Sam had completely forgotten her mother's promise to expand their studies from useful information to a basic self-defence against the most well-known metas. Even though Danny had, kind of, managed to create some sort of verbal, unofficial truce with the League by promising to help them with the ghost related problems after refusing to become part of their junior league, there was still a high possibility that the Amity Park's heroes could end up have problems with them or at least come across with some of their enemies somewhere in the future.

On the corner of her eye Sam noticed how Danny passed through the chair he had been sitting on, grabbed his bag from the floor next to him and half ran towards the nearest bathroom, laughing at Tucker's protests about how unfair his trick had been as the other boy hurried after him. The Manson women just shook their heads to this, Sam personally getting this weird warm feeling on her chest she always had nowadays whenever she saw her boyfriend use his powers openly in the presence of her or his family, something that had become more natural to the halfa during the already ended summer.

"You better go too, Sammy," the goth's mother reminded. "Or do you want your friends to come drag you out of your room before you have managed to change out from your school clothes?"

Sam grimaced, but did as her mom had suggested and started to make her way out of the room. She and her friends had spent the last couple days playing with ideas about what and how Pamela was going to teach them. They all were pretty sure that plants would be involved, especially after Sam had found out her mother had bought some old warehouse from the edge of the city, meaning the former villainess probably wanted to make sure no one would hear the noise their training could possibly cause. Tucker had also managed to dig up some old videos from the fights between Poison Ivy and Batman – watching those had been a really weird experience to Sam – so they would be able to know, at least in some degree, what to expect from Pamela and study the differences between Poison Ivy's and Undergrowth ability to manipulate the nature around them.

Considering all work they had done, Sam and her friends had been a pretty sure that they were ready for their first training session with the retired villainess who had once been one of the world's most dangerous and feared people. But when they finally arrived in front of the warehouse, roughly forty minutes later, Team Phantom was hit in to the face with the fact that, when it came to the Gotham's villains, you could never be ready.

"Holy…" Danny was the only one able to let out any kind of sound when the trio and Pamela stared at the weird mixture of an army's obstacle course and carnival that was waiting for them. And in the middle of it all, on the top of the homemade boxing ring, stood a grinning woman in bright red basketball top and black gym shorts, making her to look like the scariest personal trainer Sam had ever seen.

Pamela blinked her eyes in disbelief "She didn't…"

"Heeeelloooooo everyone!" the blonde shouted to her thunderstruck audience and as if on cue the bright spotlights came to life, their light surrounding the blonde like she was a ringmaster announcing the beginning of the awaited show. "Are ya ready ta have a little fun with, the one and only, Harley Quinn!"

"She did," the redhead sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose for a short moment before glaring towards her pale friend. "Harley dear, didn't I tell you not to bring any of your "training equipment" with you."

"But Reeeeed…" the blonde whined, gracefully hopping out of the ring and dancing to hug her best friend. "I just took a couple little old things from the back of our warehouse."

"Just a couple?!" Pamela scoffed and slapped the back of the younger woman's head "Harley, this is more than a truckload!"

The three teenagers stared at the arguing women with wide eyes. Unlike Danny and Tucker, Sam wasn't that surprised to see her mother lose her cool around Harley, being the only one who had seen the two together before, though finding out that Pamela had invited Harley to help with their training was something she hadn't expected. Neither did she know if her mother had told the harlequin villain the true reasons behind Sam's mother's newfound desire to teach them or in better words, told her Danny's little secret and his meeting with the League's covert team.

"We are so doomed," Tucker managed to blurt out mechanically, just before the clown themed supervillain pulled him on a one-armed hug, still somehow managing to keep his face perfectly blank, though Sam was quite sure it was because he was too afraid to move.

"Is it so wrong if I want ta give only the best ta these poor misguided youths?" Harley gasped as she put her arm around the boy like a protective mother "They are our first protégés, Red, an' as a responsible mentor, I will do my best ta teach them everythin' I know!"

"They are not our protégés, Harley. We are just teaching them to defend themselves in case, I don't know, _Joker_ comes to search his missing stuff from here."

"Isn't that the same thin'?" the blonde asked Tucker who was standing stiffly like a tree in her hug but before the teen had even a chance to open his mouth to answer, Harley had already turned her head back towards Pamela. "The kid is right, it's the same thin'. An' don't ya worry about Mistah' J, Pammy. My Puddin' has this new huge plan in the oven an' ya know how he never notices what's happenin' around him when he is in that state of mind."

The redhead scoffed and glared angrily straight into Harley's puppy dog eyes. "Your better be right about this Harleen," she told her. "Because I surely won't be the one cleaning the messes your boyfriend makes."

"Of course I am right!" the blonde giggled and, to Tucker's great relief, took her arm away from Tucker's shoulder. And it wasn't like Tucker was going to waste his perfect opportunity to escape as he started immediately moving towards Sam and Danny taking one shaking side step after another, his eyes firmly glued to the laughing woman. Little he did know that the overly hyper harlequin had already chosen her next victim.

"Sammyyyy!" Harley's excited shriek was the only warning Sam had before she was pulled in a bone crushing hug and spun around like a ragdoll. "Did ya miss yer Aunt Harley? What am I talkin' about, of course ya did! Oh, we are goin' to have so much fun with trainin' together!"

"Hi Harley," Sam was able to gasp. Who would have thought that her mother's friend was so strong? Wasn't she supposed to be a normal human and not a meta?

"Let my daughter breath, Quinzel," Pamela snapped behind Sam, her tone and the use of the real last name saying clearly she was still angry at the clown.

Harley did what she was told but seemed completely oblivious to the harshness of the redhead's tone, or at least that was how it seemed to be in Sam's point of view.

"And who might this be?" the blonde then asked her eyes looking at something behind the girl and when Sam glanced to her side she saw that Danny had appeared next to her, his eyes glaring suspiciously at the pale woman in front of them.

The goth just rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's overprotectiveness. "This is Danny," she told Harley then swung her hand, pointing towards the techno geek of the group who had decided to stay near Pamela after the blonde had launched herself on Sam. "And the other boy you kidnapped is Tucker."

A knowing glimmer lit the clown's eyes as her already wide smile grew. "Aaaa… The boyfriend."

Danny crossed his arms over his chest while narrowing his eyes. "The one and only."

"A feisty one, I see," a chuckle escaped behind Harley's grin as she leaned closer to the halfa who stood maybe slightly taller than her. "Or maybe you are just stupid."

Danny just shrugged his shoulders slightly. "I have been called both," he told her calmly and for a moment Sam had to wonder what was going on inside his head.

The blonde pursed her lips thoughtfully then, after straightening her back, she started to walk towards the self-made obstacle course. "Let's figure it out then," she said, stopping in front of something that looked like a running track lined with ball cannons and some Fenton Works level weird weapons. "I made this thin' to test ya kids speed an' reflexes while making ya familiar with some of our friends' favourite toys," Harley explained proudly and tapped one of the weird looking guns. Danny eyed the makeshift system warily, which was understandable knowing his experiments with his parents' weapons and Sam really hoped he was smart enough to admit that the practise was too challenging to his human form, then he actually started to walk towards it with a self-confident face. The boy's decision made the smirk on the clown criminal's lips turn into something that felt almost threatening as she saw how the halfa took his place at the beginning of the track.

It was then that Pam decide to intervene. "Harley, isn't that thing a bit too dangerous for the first training exercise?"

"Naah, the lover boy will be fine," the blonde laughed and tossed something round and bulky towards Danny, which he managed to catch just before it hit the cement floor. "He is wearing a helmet!"

"As if that's going to help him against Freeze's ice gun and Joker's acid filled water pistols," Sam, who had now moved next to Tucker so she could more easily glare at her idiotic boyfriend, heard her mother mutter under her breath. Suddenly the goth was weirdly happy that Danny was already "half dead" and his ghost half had an ice core. And judging by Tucker's expression, he was thinking exactly the same thing.

"He is so going to get his ass kicked," the dark-skinned boy commented almost casually. "Seriously, what is he even thinking? There is no way he is going to survive that without going ghost."

Sam continued trying to murder Danny, who was currently fitting the red football helmet on his head, with her eyes. "Isn't it obvious? He is an idiot. An idiot with too much pride to admit he has no idea how to fight against anything other than ghosts." Then she turned to talk to her mother almost in pouting voice. "Why did you even ask her to come? I thought you were trying to keep contacts with your "old friends" as minimum a possible."

"I still am," Pamela responded a bit too sharply but quickly softened her still frustrated tone. "I have just never been that good with hand-to-hand combat like Harley so I thought that maybe she would be a better teacher to you. As Poison Ivy I always relied on my powers, avoiding physical contact as much as possible unless I was completely sure I was the one in control," the redhead's eyes moved to study her hands, probably once again thinking about the life she had left behind. "I was like nature, subtle, fraudulent and deadly. Or at least as long as I didn't let my temper get the best of me," she smiled shortly before looking back at the two teenagers. "I also needed someone to fill me in with the latest events of the villain world. I might follow the news daily, but there is always so many underground events you are going to miss if you aren't inside."

"So that's how you knew that the Flash has twins…" Tucker realized. He had spent weeks trying to confirm all the secret information that Sam's mother had given to them, mostly without any results, and boy, the techno geek liked to complain about it. Personally, Sam just hoped her friend wouldn't draw any unwanted attention on himself by poking around the internet forums and the Leagues fan pages.

The former villainess let out a not so flattering sneer. "It's not like Central City's rogues nor speedsters have any skills keeping secrets from the outside world. It's purely a miracle that no one has figured out the Flash's secret identity yet."

Sam frowned, having ewalized a hole in Pamela's explanation. "Why didn't you ask for Selina's help then? I thought she and Harley are pretty much equal when it comes to fighting skill, and surely she knows just as much as Harley does." Sam was about to add a couple more points into her reasoning, but it was then that Harley shot into the air with her flare gun looking weapon, signalling to Danny he had a permission to run. And the boy surely did that, though it didn't mean that he managed to dodge all those flying things that Harley's training exercise was throwing towards him from every possible direction. The remaining teenagers grimaced out of sympathy, feeling their friend's pain and Sam decided to settle just with the words "and safer…"

Pam too shook her head as she watched the young boy struggle, then tried to make her voice heard over her friend's loud cheers and the noises the machinery caused. "After Selina become engaged to Mr. Wayne she started to work full-time with the Bats. And I would really appreciate if _he_ doesn't find out that some untrustworthy ex-villain has taken you three under her wing and is teaching you how to fight against the League. In my opinion, adding Harley to this mess is lesser of two evils."

"Your mom made a good point," Tucker pointed out, before returning to shout various, and not so helpful, advices to his best friend who was still trying to reach the end of the track without any kind of grace. Still, Danny had survived over the half way point without relying on his powers so Sam had to admit that she was at least slightly impressed.

The redhead looked at her daughter's friend blankly for a short moment, with an almost calculating look in her eyes, and most likely trying to figure out if Tucker was being sarcastic or not. Mrs. Manson might have taught the two boys almost a month now and was doing her best to come along with them, but Sam knew that her mother still saw Danny and Tucker as inappropriate company to her daughter. She had just learned to accept that she hadn't any chance to make Sam abandon them and that the trio needed each other just as much as she had once needed the other two Sirens.

Finally, Pamela turned her eyes back to her moody daughter. "I think now would be a good time for us to start your personal lesson," she announced, completely changing the subject, and earning a frustrated groan from the dark-haired girl.

The redhead chuckled at the face Sam was making then turned to call her friend who was now patting the pale, sweaty and slightly bruised Danny's back while the boy was gasping for air on all fours at the end of the track.

When the blonde heard the other woman's plan she just grinned, assuring she would be perfectly fine with the two boys and as a proof, she immediately turned to call Tucker.

"Oi! It's ya turn now, four-eyes!" Harley announced cheerfully to Tucker's great horror.

"No, it's not!" the boy protested quickly, holding his hands in front of himself as he took a couple steps back "I don't need prove you anything!"

The clown looked slightly confused for a short moment before breaking into giggles like a little girl, somehow managing to make the normally innocent sound give ghoosebumps to those around her.

"Oh, this is just a warm up. Red told me how terrible ya two are at sports so I had to find a good motivation for ya." The never-ending smirk on the woman's face seemed to grow even bigger as she eyed the ever-paler boy like a hungry wolf would look at its next meal. "All the lover boy needed was someone challenging his pride in front of his girl, but you… I know exactly how to make boys like you run…"

"Don't leave me alone with that maniac," Tucker whimper his voice full of horror and gripped Sam's arm tightly between his shaking hands.

"I won't. Danny will be here with you," she whispered back. The boy looked towards his best friend who was still trying to catch his breath, then turned to look at the goth with a helpless look in his eyes.

"Can't you see what she already did to Danny? He looks half-dead!"

Even though Sam agreed with him, she honestly did, she forced Tucker to let her arm go and gave him a somewhat encouraging pat on his shoulder.

"Nothing out of the ordinary then. You will be just fine," she assured him over her shoulder while walking after her mother who had already made her way in front of a lonely, box like room that was probably meant to be an office or something like that, convincing herself that her friends would only thank her for not saving them from Harley's torture if (when) they would come across some not so friendly meta-humans.

Since Sam didn't hear any more arguments from her friend's direction and Danny too seemed to be well enough to manage to collect himself up from the floor, she decided to let herself lull into the belief that the two boys would be perfectly fine during an hour or so – the average length of her mother's little experiments – before Sam too would join them and get her own share of that merciless trainer that Sam's "Aunt" Harley seemed to be.

Pamela gave her daughter an understanding smile. "I know Harley might seem a bit… over energic, but try not to worry. She knows that not everyone is as tireless as she is," she assured to Sam as the girl walked towards the door her mother was keeping open. "Usually…" she then added tiredly, looking at something behind Sam. Deciding she didn't even want to know what the clown had just done, especially after hearing a very familiar high pitched scream, Sam hurried past her mother inside the room. The sooner they could finish probably yet another fruitless attempt to search for the needle in a haystack (that was also known as finding out what changes the activated metagene had caused in Sam's body) the sooner Sam could go help her friends… The shrieks echoing inside the hall made her wince and pray she would be able come to their aid fast enough.

Honestly, Sam was a bit surprised how it took as long as half an hour before Harley rushed in the small office, crying about how she had managed to lose Danny and Tucker during some game the clown themed criminal called "heroes and villains". While her mother turned her attention from Sam to the blonde woman, Sam continued starring at a small violet Pamela had given to her and ordered the girl make its petals move without using her hands. Despite Sam's many attempts to get her mother to realise she hadn't any plant related powers, this kind of practices were still Pamela's favourite ones and at this point, Sam could even swear that she was able to hear the flower mocking her, even without the ability to talk with plants.

While Pamela tried to make the younger woman believe that the boys had probably just found a good hiding place and not been vaporized by one of the weapons Harley had brought with her – why someone had even thought that designing something like that was a good idea was way over Sam's understanding -, Sam pointed her finger up towards the rooms low ceiling, her eyes never leaving the plant in front of her, not really paying any attention to what she was doing.

"They are up there," she muttered absently, barely loud enough for both adults to hear her words.

"Really?" Harley asked hopefully while brushing tears out of her cheeks, almost immediately running out of the door and (judging by the sounds the Mansons were able to hear) jumped up to the room's roof with ease.

After listening for a couple seconds to the unsure sounding steps above their heads the happy "Found them!" shout broke silence, soon followed by two loud yelps and crash when Danny accidentally turned himself and Tucker intangible, causing them to drop through the ceiling straight on the top of the table and would have crushed the flower pot on it if Pamela hadn't managed to save it on time. Sam blinked her eyes slowly, staring at the groaning mass that was now laying in front of her eyes, more surprised by the fact that the shaky looking table had managed to stay in one piece than her friends' sudden appearance. After all, when you worked semi-professionally with creatures who were able to turn invisible, things like this had been the first things to lose their effects when Sam had learned to lean more on her other senses and gut feelings than her eyes.

"Thanks a lot for busting our hiding place Sam," Danny groaned and rubbed his forehead he had hit against the hard, plastic surface.

"Yeah, seriously," Tucker added while pushing himself off from on top of Danny where he had landed. The techno geek then bent his back backwards, causing it to let out a painful sounding pop, coloured by yet another groan, before the boy's eyes moved to glare at Sam. "I don't care how you did it, but friends are supposed to cover each other's backs, not feed them to the wolves."

Sam just rolled her eyes, her arms crossing over her chest. "As if I was the only one who was able to notice you two get up there. Stealth isn't exactly either of your strongest traits."

"Actually, Samantha" Pamela's calm voice interrupted the bickering teens, "I didn't hear anything that could have pointed at Daniel and Tucker's arrival up there. And assuming I was the one who was paying more attention to my surrounding, shouldn't this be the other way around?"

Three teens stared at the redhead holding the flowerpot on her hands, trying to catch what the adult was suggesting. "Mom please don't say you think that this is-"

"Has something like this happened before?" Pamela asked quickly from Sam's friends, completely ignoring the girl's protest. The said boys looked each other, Danny mouthing the word "no", his face and hands clearly turning it in into a question, Tucker looking equally as unsure as his best friend.

"She does seem always to notice you when you are trying to scare her."

"Yeah, but so does Jazz."

"Dude, she has lived with you her whole life. And what about last week and that accident with those ectoplasm samples?"

"Okay, maybe not always, but it's not like I haven't managed to scare Sam too before."

"Name at least one time,"

The halfa raised his finger, already opening his mouth to answer, then stopped, frowned and slowly opened his mouth a second time before closing it again, clearly not finding the answer he was looking for.

Sam couldn't help but groan, when she saw how the exchange of words caused the fire in her mother's eyes to burn even brighter. Sam would be lying if she said that (possibly) finding out what her superpower was wasn't exciting. It was just that the whole subject had partly lost its shine when Pamela's inner scientist had become slightly obsessed with figuring out the mystery in Sam's DNA, leading to multiple tests, each of which was stranger than the next.

"I see," the excited smile slowly lighting the woman's face as she lowered the violet and its pot back on the table. Her hand quickly found the notebook from the floor where she had dropped it while rushing to save the flower from becoming crushed and started to write down notes, muttering to herself something about hearing, ghosts and the like.

"Mmmm sooooo…." A weak chuckle came from the doorway and when the teens turned their heads towards the sound they saw Harley's head hanging upside down under the door's top. "Am I the only one who is surprised from seein' two boys fallin' through the ceilin' without breakin' it? Because last time I checked, only Martians could do that trick."

Sam found herself face palming, now realizing they had completely forgotten the harlequin, while Tucker let out an awkward laugh, probably trying to figure out how to make up some believable excuse, and Danny cursed under his breath in the most vulgar way he knew.

"…Butter biscuits…"

"This is stupid," Sam complained as she stood in the middle of Harley's boxing ring, her eyes tied with her mother's jacket and ears covered by using ear plugs _and_ industrial earmuff, both of which origins were a complete mystery to the goth.

Her mother said something back to her, but all Sam was able to hear was something muffled so she decided not to comment. Pamela had probably just told her not to be silly or something similar without bothering to even get her eyes of the notes she had been making continually ever since they had gotten their new lead, documenting every single step of their little experiment to chart down how Sam's metagene worked.

According to what they had managed to gather this far, it seemed that neither Sam's hearing nor her sense of smell were better than average persons (both of which had been among the first things the Mansons had tested after hearing about Sam's metagene) and she indeed had some kind of sixth sense to sense people around her. It was actually kind of funny how she hadn't ever even noticed anything until today. Her mother had already made a hypothesis that Sam's power was active all the time, almost like she was able to sense some kind of vibration or aura that humans had, allowing Sam to sense their location in the same way as humans were aware of their noses: they knew it was there and saw it all the time, but still somehow managed to forget its existence whenever they weren't paying any attention on it.

Of course, it was way more complicated than this. Firstly, Sam didn't actually have any specific sense that told her where to look. She just knew where someone was, making it more like muted gut feeling than anything else. Secondly, it seemed that she was more aware of some people than others. Danny and Tucker were easiest to find, while her mother was a bit harder and Harley -to the blonde's great delight- was able to get in contact distance before Sam was able to notice anything. Sam's mother thought it might have something to do with Sam's emotional tie with person, since Danny was the far easiest to Sam to locate (it could also be a ghost thing. They needed to test that out later), or how much time she spent around said person. And thirdly, Sam's ability didn't seem to have any kind of perception of distance, it just gave her a direction where someone was, which might be the most annoying feature.

Speaking of which.

"Stop," Sam sighed and pointed to her thumb towards her two o'clock. "Danny."

Speaking of the Ghost Boy. His secret was still mostly safe, since the trio and Pamela had managed to get Harley to believe that Danny was just another metahuman who had an ability to change his and the objects he was touching molecular structure, giving him an ability to both walk through solid objects and turn invisible (because they had to explain somehow how he and Tucker had been able to sneak away so easily) a short amount of time. Harley seemed to be okay with it and understood surprisingly well why Pamela hadn't told her anything about it. The only problem they now had though was that Harley was now trying to convince Danny to help her get some of her "pals" out of Arkham or at least steal something with her while she was in Amity Park.

"Stop… Tucker," this time Sam's thumb pointed over her shoulder, towards the door behind her.

Tucker… Well, nothing special had happened to him since falling on the table. He was just happy neither his glasses nor PDA hadn't broken and complained every ten minutes how his back was still hurting.

"Stop and Harley," Sam pointed her finger to her left, only to hear an exited "I won" shout from the same direction. Since there was no more people in the building with them, Sam decided to remove the jacket blinding her vision to see how she had done this time. As usual, Harley had stopped less than two meters from Sam and was still doing her small victory dance. Tucker was a bit closer than last time they had made the same experiment, leaving him somewhere between 4 and 4,5 meters away from her, while Danny was stopped once again exactly the same distance as before, leaving him standing 5 meters from the goth. When the later of the boys noticed Sam's gaze, he offered her a small smile and waved a bit.

The mumbling on her right caused Sam to turn her head and lift the earmuff off her head allowing her to hear better what her mother was saying.

"-managed to define the close averages to each person we have here," Pamela said while writing down the last set of numbers. "Next we could try if it is possible to flex the maximum radius. Daniel, please try to move very little away from Sam so she can feel you only weakly, then let her adjust a while before moving again. Okay?"

"Actually, Mrs. Manson," Danny started awkwardly. "Shouldn't we quit already? I mean it's getting a bit late."

Sam heard Tuck yawn loudly, "Yeah, Danny is right. Mum asked me to be home at nine and it's already over eight o'clock."

Pamela raised her head from her notes and glanced at the clock on her wrist. The woman let out an unhappy sigh but still closed the notebook with a sharp slap. "Yes, maybe it's better if we continue this tomorrow," she agreed and turned to look towards Harley. "Do you need a lift at your motel, Harley, or did you plan to sleep here during your stay?"

The blonde smiled sweetly, "Well, I was thinkin' that maybe-"

"No," Sam's mother said coldly and started to walk towards the door. "You are not sleeping in my house. I have promised Jeremy not to house any criminals under our roof."

"Does dad even know that you asked Harley to come to Amity Park?" Sam asked, and the sheepish look in her mother's face was the only answer she needed.

"Oh, come on Red!" Harley whined "Why didn't you tell him? Jerry loves me."

"And we both know how twisted your idea of love is…" Sam heard Pamela mutter quietly, making the girl assume that her father wasn't as fond of the blonde as the other thought. The redhead pulled her phone out of her pocket, offering the device to Harley, ghost of almost challenging smirk tucking the corner of her mouth. "How about you call Jeremy and ask him yourself what he thinks about your plans."

"Ask me what?" the familiar voice made all people in the room turn their heads towards the hall's doorway, where Jeremy was now standing, carrying a picnic basket with him. Sam was a little touched from seeing her father. She knew that he wasn't exactly comfortable with Sam's current training or her metagene, often purposely staying away from Pam's lessons and experiments with their daughter's abilities, and yet he had drove almost to the other side of the city to see how Sam was doing even though he could have just called and asked why their training was taking longer than he had been told. And he had even brought something to drink with him.

But, as Sam watched her father freeze and slowly lose all colour from his face when he recognized the second blonde in the room, she was sure he was now deeply regretting his decision.

"Hi Jeremy!" Harley waved to him in a wide arc, her voice full of her trademark happiness, "Long time no see!"

The man didn't even blink, just made a stiff U-turn and, without saying a word, Jeremy walked out the still open door as fast as he could without running.

"See," Harley smiled to Pamela as if saying I-told-you-so and as she finished her sentence, it took all the willpower that Sam and the boys had to stop themselves from laughing at Harley Quinn's childish naivety. "I told you that he loves me."

"If you say so Harley. If you say so."

* * *

 _Yeah... I'm sorry for being gone for so long. As some of you have probably read from my profile, past months haven't been the easiest ones to me and because of that I simply lost my motivation to write. The main problem in my pesonal life is still there though, so if I disappear again, it's most likely because of that._

 _And don't worry, I'm not sick nor anyone is dying, things had just been... complicated._

 _But about happier things!_

 ** _About Sam's power:_**

 _As I have told some of you who asked, I wanted to give Sam a power that was inspirated from the skill/power she almost had in the show. Well, originally she was supposed to have a 'psychic connection' with Danny that would let one know where the other one was , but this was removed just before the premiere. Personally I found this fact during the times when I was trying to decide if giving Sam a superpower was good idea or not and the skill just felt right. At first I thought giving her power similar to Scrying spell in Charmed (or My sister is a witch as the show is called in Finland) but the whole map and crystal thing felt a bit too random Sam to ever figure out so I ended up a weird sixth sense. _

_I hope that none of you are that badly dissapointed. I know that plant powers were the ones you wanted to see the most (and honestly back when Dark Seacret was still going to be just a two shot that was my plan) but then it started to feel too obvious and I changed my mind.  
_

 _And another note... Next chapter will the most likely be the last one. I was planing to write one more chapter where Pamela meets Bruce again in his and Selina's wedding so they could make a peace of some sort, but now I just want leave them hating each other and Team Phantom in dark gray area when it comes to their alliances with the character of DC universe._

 _And as always big thank you to my beta jaguarspot_

 _Hopefully next chapter will appear sooner than this one._

 _Happy Valentine's Day!_

 _-Kilppari_


	9. Blood Blossoms

_Once again thank you for jaguarspot for betaing this chapter and the whole story._

* * *

 _One man's poison ivy is another man's spinach_

 _-George Ade_

"Oh, hello Daniel," Pam said, slightly surprised to find the young man standing behind her door at this time of the day. "Sam isn't home right now. She went shopping with Jeremy and Ida, and I don't think they will be back for another hour."

Danny shifted carefully the weight of the brown cardboard box on his hands as if it would explode at any upcoming moment. "I know. She told me about it back at school," he answered her awkwardly. "I… I need to ask you a favour and I know that Sam or Tucker wouldn't like it so…"

Pam studied her daughter's boyfriend carefully before she finally moved aside, motioning for Danny to step inside. To tell the truth, she had half expected something like this would happen sooner or later when she had decided to start sharing her knowledge with the young, ghost specialised, vigilantes. Even though she would never admit it out a loud, Pamela was now the closest thing to a mentor like figure in their lives and therefore the one they would most likely seek out when they were in the need of help with super related problems or power related advice.

Daniel muttered his quick thanks and hurried inside, as if he was afraid of someone seeing him standing on the stairs of the Mansons' household. Or maybe the content of the box was more sensitive in nature than Pam had first thought. This thought made the woman narrow her eyes suspiciously, but she decided to leave it be for now, trusting that the boy would shed some light on his weird behaviour soon. After all, Daniel wasn't the kind of person who would run around the city with stolen goods or deadly weapons unlike some other people Pamela knew.

Except he had done both of those things, Pam's traitorous mind reminded her. The latter more often if you counted his parents' weapons as deadly, which they certainly could be to the ghosts the boy hunted.

"Would you like some tea?" Pam asked while leading her young guest towards the kitchen, mostly out of habit, but part of her also wanted to give the boy something that could help him relax.

"Yeah, thank you. Tea sounds good." Daniel mumbled his answer almost too indistinctly for Pam to understand him, another, slightly worrisome, sign that something was bothering the usually vocal young man who always seemed to know what to say.

While Pamela started to prepare their drinks, Daniel sat down and pushed the box out of his hands on the table, as far as it was possible without making it too awkward for him to reach its content.

"I have to say, I'm curious," Pamela broke the silence, trying her best to make it clear that her words weren't judging or pushing the boy to say anything he didn't want to, as she placed a still empty cup in front of him. "How on earth have you managed to find a plant that I have never seen before?"

Daniel gave Pamela a startled stare. "What? How?"

"Forgot I can talk to plants?" Pamela chuckled and tapped her temple. "And if I were you, I would open the lid. The poor darling is starting to suffer from the lack of the fresh air."

"Oh…" the dark-haired boy muttered, the embarrassment bringing some colour to his otherwise pale cheeks as he turned to look at the box in between them. The look in his eyes told Pamela he didn't want to follow her advice. She couldn't be completely sure, but she could almost swear that the boy was afraid of whatever plant he had brought with him, as if it would physically hurt him to touch it.

"Mind if I take a look?" Pamela finally asked after pouring the hot water in the boy's cup and leaving a box full of different flavoured teabags next to him. Daniel didn't say anything, just nodded his head, giving more attention to choosing what kind of tea he wanted to drink than what she was doing.

 _So, let's see what kind of little devil you are_ , Pamela thought as she moved the lids of the box aside, revealing a small rose like flower that had been dug up from the ground with its roots and placed in a NASA themed blue coffee mug, supported on the upright position with the help of many crumpled newspapers so it wouldn't fall over when the box was moved.

The first thing that Pamela noticed was the purple colour of the plant's stem and leaves, most likely the result of a high concentration of anthocyanin in them. Even though the purple colour itself wasn't unheard of in the world of plants, a shade as dark as this one was something that even Pamela had never come across before, making her even more curious about the origin of this little plant and how Daniel had managed to get his hands on it. Otherwise the plant could have been mistaken as a regular red rose with their blood-red flower and sharp spikes if there hadn't been that strong, almost cumin like smell with a hint of something similar to something metallic.

"Hello beautiful," the words left from Pamela's lips gently, like she was talking to a small, frightened child as she carefully picked the mug up from the box. Because that was what this little jewel of nature was in her eyes, a scared child who had been taken away from their home and locked in some dark place where they could hardly breath, let alone had enough water or nutrients to ease the plant's growing hunger. Pamela's motherly touch brought the poor thing at least some comfort, but the flower needed to be moved into a bigger pot immediately, as well as getting fertilizer and proper light to maximise the photosynthesis and then who ever had done this to her poor baby would-

"It's called Blood Blossom," Daniel's voice brought Pamela back from her inner planning session and she hastily punished the forbidden thoughts the flower had awoken in the back of her mind. The boy tried his best to look relaxed, slowly drinking the still steaming hot tea, inhaling deeply the aroma of the drink through his nose, and yet his tightened grip around his cup and continuous, almost fearful glances towards the flower on Pamela's hands were telling a completely different story. "People used to use those to protect themselves from witches and ghosts," he explained and grimaced, "but unfortunately, unlike the most of that superstitions crap that people believe in, Blood Blossoms actually work."

"I see," Pamela said, now understanding the young Fenton's strange behaviour with the box, but not why she hadn't heard of them before or why he was trying to hide this beautiful plant from Sam.

Luckily, Daniel was already answering one of those questions.

"We first found out about them during that whole Infi-map chase at the beginning of the last school year." Pamela nodded, vaguely remembering Samantha talking about something similar while telling her and Jeremy what kind of adventures 'Team Phantom' had managed to hide from their parents. "Well, as you can probably guess, the locals kind of freaked out when we appeared in Salem. The witch trials were at their worst so seeing me floating around made them immediately mark Sam as a witch and call the local witch hunter to banish 'her demon servant' away."

"In hopes to keep me away from her, he laid ring of those flowers around the stake Sam was tied to and I, being the idiot that I am, flew straight into the trap. I mean, how was I supposed to know that some plants could actually harm ghosts," Daniel shuddered and his face twisted slightly as he remembered whatever pain he had gone through that day, then sighed darkly. "If Sam hadn't tought to tell Tucker to eat all those Blood Blossoms…" a new shudder shook the boy's body "I would have probably died that day. Or at least it hurt enough to feel that way."

A pang of sympathy and guilt twisted Pamela's heart when she looked at this young man sitting in front of her and who was still just a child in so many ways. The idea of child heroes wasn't as foreign to her as it should have been. She had already been around when the rumours of the very first sidekick had started to move around Gotham's streets. How old had that small bird even been back then? Eight? Nine? Maybe ten at most? And yet, she had still fought him, hurt him, been the reason behind same kind of memories and nightmares as the one Daniel was telling her. And still, Pamela's mind reminded her once again, both of these too young heroes continued to fight. That was the life they had chosen and therefore the price they were willing to pay.

"Anyway," Daniel laughed awkwardly as he continued, "As soon as we got back home, we started to look up any information about the Blood Blossoms so we would know what kind of places I should avoid in future and if some foods or other products used them. To our luck, it turned out that the last mention of the plant was from late 1800's, so we started to think that the Blood Blossoms had just become extinct because of the over use or something like that."

"And now it's turned out you were wrong," she finished his thought and Daniel hummed an agreement into his tea.

"Last week when we chased that annoying snake ghost almost all way up to Alaska, we came across a small clearing in middle of a forest that was full of them. No one got hurt this time, but we still decided it was for the best to burn them all. But when I went back yesterday to make sure that we had indeed destroyed all flowers for good, I found that one hiding under some large bush. After that I immediately flew back home, borrowed the Specter Speeder to fly get back to the field in my human form, dug that thing up and you know pretty much know the rest of the story"

Pamela blinked her eyes slowly, pulling the flower protectively closer her chest. "You did _what_!"

At some other time and state of mind the reaction she got out of the boy as he realised how big a mistake it had been to tell her the fate of the Blood Blossom field, would have been hilarious and would have brought up some pleasing memories from her past when just the sight of her had made humans fall on their knees and beg for mercy. Now, all she felt was anger. This meat bag in front of her had taken part of genocide of already vulnerable children, destroying the remains of their kind, leaving behind only one lone, suffering baby who these heartless monsters had forced to witness the death of the only family this innocent plant had. And to make it even worse, one of those murderers had been made out of her own flesh and blood. That good for nothing child. Ivy should have taken the toddler with her to ensure that mankind wouldn't pollute the child's mind with their barbaric ideals.

The meat bag leaned back on his chair and tried his best to put up a brave face as his almost glowing blue eyes met Ivy's own burning ones and the temperature of the room seemed to drop several degrees. "Look, I'm sorry Mrs. Manson, but let's say we had left those flowers alone. Sooner or later someone else would have come across them, probably someone with enough knowledge to realise that they had found something extraordinary. That person would for sure tell others what they found and before we could realise what is happening, everyone would know about the plant that has somehow survived extinction, even those who are not supposed to know."

"There are people who will turn Blood Blossoms into a weapon to destroy all ghosts and the Zone if they have a chance." the meat bag (no, his name is Daniel) continued with the voice of someone who had seen too much injustice during his life, something that Ivy herself knew too well. "And if they destroy the Ghost Zone, they will destroy this world as well. Our worlds are connected, two sides of the same coin as Sam puts it, but those who hate ghosts can't nor want to see that."

Ivy narrowed her eyes "So you thought that the survival of many would justify the suffering of the few?" this wasn't the ideology the boy usually followed and she had every right to question his motives. Yet, if his fears were justified, would she have done the same? Would the murder of one species be the right thing to do if it would save the rest of the green?

Daniel tilted his head, "I wouldn't use words that strong. I mean Blood Blossoms are just flo-," the halfa snapped his mouth shut before he could finish the sentence that could have easily ended up being his final words. They still might be, but now when her anger had lost its hottest flames, Pamela knew that killing the boy would upset both her daughter and certain heroes she wanted to forget.

"Look," the boy said and motioned towards the now badly cracked coffee mug on her hands. "There is still at least one left, right. And I figured that you are the best person to keep it safe and hidden. Or at least the only person I can trust with it."

Pam stared at Daniel a long moment before throwing her head back, letting out the best laugh she had had in years. He trusted her with the deadliest poison known to all ghosts? In all her years, she had never even imagined meeting someone who was stupid or insane enough to say something like that.

"You- you do know that my name has literally the word 'poison' in it?" she asked the now red-faced teen, who (for some reason) seemed much more relaxed than a moment ago, after managing to get her laughter under a control.

Daniel chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah… Okay, maybe you weren't my first choice," Pam rolled her eyes good naturedly and sat down on the chair opposite him, her eyes making a quick check across the room to make sure she hadn't had any accidents during her fit of anger. Some of the closer flowerpots needed to be changed (again) and one of her special seeds might have started to grow, lifting the tiles on the floor just slightly, but nothing she wouldn't be able to fix or hide before her family's return. "But Sam could never use them against me if it comes to that."

Pamela looked up at the young man at the other side of the small table. He might have said the last part with a joking tone, but his body language was telling her that his words had been genuine. Of course she knew about the circus accident and its ringmaster's power to control ghosts. That had been a big news back then, but there was also something else behind his fears that Daniel wasn't telling her.

"Daniel," the tone of her voice made the boy turn his gaze away, his eyes stopping to follow the slim branches moving along the wind just behind the window's glass.

"I saw a future where I destroyed Earth after losing everyone I loved. Even the Justice League was gone or at least they weren't powerful enough to stop me…"

"A potential future, Daniel." I corrected him.

Daniel sighed, not sounding really convinced "I know that. Clockwork explained how time works." Pamela wasn't sure who this Clockwork person was, probably another ghost hence the weird name, but he was the most likely the reason why Daniel was aware of the possible dystopia he might end up creating, a burden that no young man his age should carry on his shoulders. "But the possibility is still there."

"Just like there is a possibility that I will betray your trust and use this plant against you." She reminded him and the halfa swallowed nervously, which the redhead noted with satisfaction. It meant that the boy wasn't a naïve idiot, unable to understand that despite her current life as a loving house wife, she was still one of the most powerful meta-humans on Earth and had more blood on her hands than he, hopefully, would ever have. "And that is why both of those things will happen, but it doesn't mean that it will be part of our universe's timeline."

Pamela's words made a several emotions flash on Daniel's face; fear, pain, defeat and finally confusion when the young hero failed to understand what Pam had meant.

"The multiverse theory. Or well, since the existence of multiple universes has been proved, I guess it's not just a theory anymore."

Daniel turned to look at Pamela, her words being just what was needed to spark his curiosity. "It has?"

"Oh, yes," she smirked, remembering certain very interesting rumours about doppelgangers of the Justice League running around a year before the heroes had gone public. She herself hadn't come across them, but those who had often complained about how they hadn't been the nicest heroes on the block. "There has even been some travelling between different universes, but the League is trying their best to keep the needed technology secret."

Daniel's nose wrinkled, just a little but it was enough to express the boy's annoyance towards the self-claimed protectors of Earth and their controlling nature. Expressions like these on Sam's and her two friends faces always made a warm feeling of pride bloom on her chest. Pam would be lying if she claimed she hadn't been purposely denigrating the League's image at least little during her lectures and in stories she told Sam about her past life. But she also knew these teenagers were smart kids, who had already formed their own opinions on the more popularly known heroes even before Pam had taken them 'under her wing'. Some of the Leaguers were even their role models, a standard of hero they themselves tried to reach, and in Pamela's eyes, this kind of small hero worship was a good thing on its own way. It wasn't like she herself could ever teach them what it was like to be a good hero. Though Tucker's not so small admiration towards Bat clans' detective and hacking skills were a bit annoying from time to time, but, to Pamela's pleasure, lately he had been more interested in a certain cybernetic hero on the west coast closer to his own age.

"Maybe it's for the best," Daniel finally muttered, "After all, who wants a copy of themselves running around doing who knows what."

"Exactly," Pamela smiled while gently stroking the deep red petals of Blood Blossom, keeping one ear open to its quiet whispers and giving the flower her own soundless calming words and suggestions. "With some luck, the universe they come from is very similar to our own; maybe the Samantha of that world decided to drink tea this morning instead of juice or perhaps in their Earth you decided to wear a different coloured suit when entering your parents' portal the very first time. Then there are worlds where I still am Poison Ivy, worlds where there never was a hero named Phantom and even worlds where neither of us was never born. Multiple different universes with multiple different futures, all born because there was a possibility that things could have gone differently."

"So," she pushed the mug that was barely holding its original shape in the middle of the table "Let's create a couple more worlds, shall we?"

Daniel frowned, confused look once again on his face, as his gaze jumped between the mug and the amusedly smiling Pamela. "In one world, you will take this flower with you when you leave this house and there will not be any consequences while in another, me letting you make this choice will turn out to be one of my greatest mistakes." the boy bit his lower lip, probably imagining the futures Pam was painting to him. "Then there are the universes where you leave this flower in my care. In one of them I never have to use it and both of us will stay in the so called right path. In another, you fall and I keep my promise while in some other world I fall and you will regret this moment the rest of your short life." And then there was every single possibility in between, but Pamela was not going to voice those. Daniel himself already knew this and at this moment it was easier to keep the thing as simple as possible.

"Now tell me, Daniel." Pamela leaned over the table, resting her chin on her hands so she could stare at the hesitating boy as he did his best to weight his choices "Which of these futures you want to give a chance to become true in our timeline?"

"I…" the young man swallowed and licked his lips, looking paler and sweatier than usual. "I think I will still let you keep it." he finally decided and pushed the mug back to Pamela "I know that it sounds crazy to you, but I trust you more than I trust in myself with this thing."

The woman's smile turned into a sad one, "If that is what you wish," she said and closed gently her hand around the bloom of the Blossom. "Let's hope neither of us will end up regretting this decision." Pamela opened her hand, revealing the dried petals and the blood-red rose hip grown to the end of the plant's dark stalk.

Letting the dead petals fall on the wooden surface, Pam removed her gloves before carefully snapping the fruit off the plant, first asking for the Blossoms permission and asking for forgiveness for what she had to do. Then, completely aware about how Daniel's eyes followed her every movement, she dug her nails into the fruit's flesh, using them to slit it open so she could get her hands on the pale seeds inside it.

"Do you want to see where I hide them?" Pam asked while picking the seeds one by one from the hip to her palm, giving the halfa one more chance to secure his own survival in case she would lose her sanity.

The boy placed his cup back on the table and shook his head. "No thanks, Mrs. Manson" he said as he stood up, once again rubbing awkwardly the back of his neck. "I should go back home before Sam gets back. She will be so pissed if she ever finds out that I made you, her own mother, my 'kill switch' only because I'm afraid of some stupid nightmare that probably will never even happen."

"It's not stupid. Just a fear that every meta, especially heroes, have." Pamela told him "Especially if they have a power strong enough to destroy lives and cities. What is the thing they always say… With great power comes great responsibility?"

Daniel blinked, taken aback with the fact that his girlfriend's mother had just quoted some old comic book character then snickered, a familiar, little cocky smile by which Phantom was so well-known among the young ladies of Amity Park lighting his face. "Thanks Mrs M. I needed that one."

"No. Thank you. For trusting me with this." Pam said, she too getting up from her chair, the Blood Blossom seeds firmly secured in her fist. "It means a lot to me."

The boy let out an awkward laugh and kicked some non-existing dust on the floor, a small blush creeping on his cheeks. "You're welcome?" the words came out more as question than anything else, but it was more than enough to bring a much happier smile back to Pam's lips.

It took another couple minutes for Daniel to leave, the now empty cardboard box under his arm and with a much lighter step, as if some sort of heavy burden had been at least partially lifted from his shoulders. Pamela sighed and closed the door, genuinely hoping that the boy's burden was truly gone and he had been right about putting his trust on her. The woman opened her still un-gloved fist and stared at the fifteen small seeds laying on her palm. It was funny in its own way how these innocent looking seeds were one of the deadliest weapons against ghosts that mankind had ever seen. She would need to hide them carefully to make sure that the unwanted parties Daniel had mentioned wouldn't find them. In a chrysanthemum bed perhaps? Yes, they were innocent looking enough, but if needed, the meaning of the flower would be enough for someone smart like her Sam to find them with the help of a proper tip.

Pam closed her hand and pressed the fist over her lips, allowing herself to truly process what had happened. How in the world she had ended up in this situation was beyond her own understanding. A year ago, even her own daughter hadn't known about her past and now her daughter's friend, whose family Pamela had once despised almost as much as the Bat, saw her as the one of the most trustworthy people in his life.

It was actually really funny. A many, many years ago, the world had only known her, Pamela Isley, as the insane eco-terrorist Poison Ivy. Now, that same world had forgotten her, believed that the once feared murderer was dead and would never hurt anyone again. And in a way, they were right; there was no more a woman known as Pamela Isley, there was just Pam Manson, wife of the deli toothpick cellophane-twirling heir, five times winner of the Amity Park's 'The Most Beautiful Garden' contest, and a true modern-day lady for whom her family was the most important thing in the world.

Pam was also a woman who had found true love with her always optimistic and understanding husband, who had been insane enough to make a deal with deadly murderer and had been ready to give up the whole life he had built in Seattle to ensure their family's safety. She cared for Ida like she was her own mother and despite their arguments, the older Mrs. Manson had always done her best to help Pam live in this crazy world that was always testing her already faltering sanity. And then there was her beautiful, always so brave and rebelling flower. Sam, her only true child.

But lately Pamela had grown to realise that her family was even bigger than she had ever seen. There were the Fentons and the Foleys; the two very different families who now shared her and Jeremy's worries towards the young adults who had taken it as their mission to keep the world safe from all kind of ghostly threats.

Harley and Selina were like two crazy sisters she would never understand. One of them was a villain while one was a hero and Pamela a grey bridge in between, but in a time of need she knew she could trust in their help as long as she wouldn't force them to go against their own beliefs.

And finally, there were Tucker and Daniel: her daughter's inseparable friends and Pam's kind of proteges. They were still mostly foreigners to each other, still trying to see past the prejudices through which they had viewed each other for so many years. Once she had falsely seen only insanity in the two boys' worlds, an insanity Pamela had tried her best to keep her little Sammy away from, but had turned out to be what the girl yearned and needed the most

Yes, she might have been a villain, and despite the fact that her daughter was a hero, that past had too many memories so Pamela Manson would never be one herself. Once she had done her everything to keep Sam away from that dangerous world, but she had now learned her lesson. If being a hero was what Samantha and her friends wanted to be, there was nothing Pam could do to stop them. All she could do was to guide them, teach them the rules and keep her eyes open.

And if someone, anyone, was stupid enough to hurt her daughter or those Pamela held close of her heart, they would have to face the full wrath of nature.

After all, despite how much she had changed, Pamela was still Poison Ivy.

And ivy by any other name would always be just as deathly.

The End

* * *

 _Yep. That was the final chapter. No big fights and a lot of talking. I really hope I did not bore any of you with this kind of story._

 _As some of you already know, The Dark secret (the prequel of this story) was originally meant to be an oneshot story that I decided to turn to two-shot because it felt so long (chapters 1 and 3). The purpose of the story was to bring something different to DP fics, all of which (in my opinion) seemed to follow the same basic plot where Danny loses everything and rest of the characters of the show are either gone or completely ignored. My story was meant to be a new seed, spark of an idea to inspire other authors to write different kind of stories and I would stop posting my fics on internet after that for good._

 _Well, we all know how that story ended._

 _Now, two and half years later, the story is finished and reached more people than I could have ever hoped. The seed I planted did not grow the way as I wanted but the fruit of my work was even sweeter and has helped me through a some hard times. You have helped me through those times. This story has helped me to escape the problems back in home and your encouragements and kind words helped me to believe in myself as a writer. I can't never find right words to tell how much this all meant, and still means to me. The only thing I can say is thank you. From the bottom of my heart._

 _I hope you all have a great summer (or winter to those living on southern hemisphere) and once again, thank you._

 _'Till we meet again?_

 _Kilppari_


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